Bob Jernigan, owner of the B&B Professional plumbing based in Clearwater, Florida has purchased and installed GPS Fleet Tracking System in ten (10) of his trucks. His initial purpose was simply to help his drivers and service technicians to route more efficiently. However, he got more than what he expected. He was able to track problematic drivers, contractors, and trucks. The GPS Fleet Tracking System has also provided him more customers and much savings in terms fuel consumption due to effective routing. The company is receiving $3 million in annual revenues but Jernigan paid around $4,000 for the hardware and a monthly maintenance fee of $15 per vehicle. The GPS Fleet Tracking System purchased allowed the company to track the vehicle location, speed, and fuel consumption among others. B&B Professional plumbing’s GPS Fleet Tracking System has a sophisticated interface with onboard vehicle computers that are factory-installed. The interface itself provides diagnostic data ranging from hydrocarbon counts to cylinder misfires. The GPS Fleet Tracking System took only a few hours to set up and so far, the company has been reaping its benefits. The company has been able to lessen response time by ten percent (10%) and it has also increased the number of customers that the van can service in a day, from four customers to six. There was once instance that the GPS Fleet Tracking System sent Jernigan an email informing him that one of his trucks had a clogged fuel injector. With this knowledge, Jernigan immediately sent the truck for repair. He also measures the mileage information against the fuel consumption making sure that his service drivers are on the road and not just sitting in their vehicles. And since the GPS Fleet Tracking System has successfully routed drivers more efficiently, the company has saved around $1,300 a month in terms of fuel costs. Hence, with these savings, Jernigan has already recovered his GPS Fleet Tracking System investment in just less than four months. The GPS Fleet Tracking System also has its other benefits. Jernigan once received a call from an angry individual who had seen one of his trucks peeling out from a bar’s parking lot and speeding at around 80 miles per hour on a Sunday. Jernigan did not have any difficulty in identifying the driver since he was able to pull up the information from his GPS Fleet Tracking System taking note of the time and day of the occurrence. The employee was immediately fired for driving the company’s vehicle while not in duty. However, GPS Fleet Tracking System has also raised some concerns among drivers in a fleet. Some of them feel that it is an invasion of privacy. Hence, there are companies like United Parcel Service (UPS) that sets expectations to their employees that the GPS equipment is only used for tracking packages and not for employee evaluations. Although it might seem that the benefits gained are only for the company, Jernigan also emphasizes that their system has helped in protecting their employees as well. There was one event that a client accused the company for not showing up for a plumbing installation at a construction site. However, the GPS fleet tracking system data proved that the crew really went there on time and even waited for an hour but the general contractor never showed up. The company then billed the client around $400 in wages and fuel consumption. With this, the company’s employees have avoided getting caught in between Jernigan and their client.
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