How Much Does GPS Cost — Or, Does It Pay?
Here’s an interesting news release I just came across. It’s actually singing the praises of one of my competitors, but the fact that the company involved didn’t buy from me doesn’t negate the value of the system they bought.
As you can see they originally bought the GPS tracking system for some valid but highly technical expected returns. But low and behold they found that the employees were (consciously or unconsciously) stealing enough time that the system would pay for itself many times over, just by verifying time and attendance.
I’ve written about this in the past but I often consciously try to avoid talking about employee theft too often, because I don’t want to appear just as a grouchy old curmudgeon. But, I guess I am.
This morning I visited an old client to check out a perceived problem with his GPS tracking system. This gentleman spent a little under $5,000 for the hardware and software to track a small percentage of his fleet. It’s been running fill time now for a little over 6 months and here’s some highlights of his results:
An employee was proven to have been stealing as much as 8 hours a a week. Just not going to work on Saturdays when he was being paid to work. When challenged on the discrepancy between his actual job performance as recorded by the GPS tracking unit and the time sheets which he submitted over his signature, attesting to their accuracy, the employee stated, “I’m not going to work for a company who doesn’t trust me”! This little incident alone saved far more than the cost of the system in itself.
Another employee was doing his job pretty well, day in and day out. However, on Saturdays the employee’s truck was observed to be going to a residential location and sitting for an hour or two in the afternoon, then coming back to Headquarters at the normal quitting time. Turns out the location was the home of an old high school buddy, where the employee just sat and chatted for a bit to keep in touch. His rationale when questioned on this outright theft of time from the employer? “well my day’s work was done and the office wasn’t open so what did I have to do if I came back before 5″? Hmm, does the concept of filling out the time sheet and going home, thus not having the company pay for his chit chat sessions enter into anyone’s mind? This incident alone accounted for several thousands a year in wasted salary.
A third employee didn’t seem to be making his required stops at customers. in addition, he was logging about 8 times as much truck idling time than his co-workers (make sure you buy a system that logs idle time, not just stops). Well, turns out the guy _was_ going to the customers. he was just leaving his brand new truck, filled with expensive company property, sit outside the customers’ locations with the keys in the ignition and the engine running. In addition to the obvious potential for theft and the liability of the company had the truck been stolen, this idling added at least 4 to 5 dollars per week to their fuel bill.
Employee number four was a quick worker, The first month of his driving showed he exceeded 70 miles per hour on city streets and arterial roads 21 times (an average of better than once a day). When questioned he argued that he failed to see any problem he’d never had an accident. Forget the huge risk exposure he was leaving the company open to, do the math as to how much more fuel a truck uses at 70 that at 45 .. the speed limit on most of the roads he was traveling.
Well, these stories could go on and on, but these were the only 4 driver’s participating in the initial pilot program. That’s right, 100% of the drivers were breaking company rules and costing the company substantial, identifiable money.
I have not yet found a client who has not noticed immediate problems with his or her operation the first week GPS tracking was used. The client mentioned in this post and I today agreed that in the first 6 months of operation the tracking system (which, by the way has zero (as in no) monthly cost) , has paid for itself at least three times over. On an annualized basis that seems like a 600% return on investment (ROI) to me.
Can anybody direct me to an off-the-shelf business solution that will return on investment at a higher rate?