Fleet on the street

What’s your ETA?

Inquiring minds want to know — and that probably includes your customers.

“We live in an on-demand world,” says Chris Stoudt, president, Stout Lawn Care, Skippack, Pennsylvania. “Everyone wants to know where everyone is all the time.”

“We live in an on-demand world. Everyone wants to know where everyone is all the time.” — Chris Stoudt, president, Stout Lawn Care

He points out, “With Ring cameras and tools available to homeowners, when we receive texts from customers, they want to know, ‘How long are you going to be?’ and with the mobile technology, app and GPS tracking, all we have to do is pull up the screen and give them a rough estimate of our arrival time and they appreciate that.”

Also, we’re sort of used to being big-brothered these days.

The hangup about GPS and fleet management as an us vs. them watchdog isn’t so much the case. Being followed in real-time is an everyday affair on and off the clock. Think about it: You hop in your car with an iPhone to head into work and a Google Maps notification pops on the screen: 7 minutes to State St., estimated drive time 14 minutes.

Wait, how did a device know you were due to open up shop shortly?

Oh, well.

Not only has employee perception of GPS evolved in recent years, but so has the technology from plug-ins to app-based tools and “breadcrumbs” of data-gathering that can inform business decisions from sales to pricing, labor management to customer relations. Fleet management software is so much more than speeding and hard stops, and it’s progressing fast.

Justin Tamborski has been vetting GPS and fleet management programs for the last decade while running Three Brothers Landscaping with his father, who founded the Oak Forest, Illinois-based business in 1988. They never pulled the trigger on hardwired or plug-in GPS systems, and during the last several months have been integrating a new CRM software that has an app-based fleet management tool.

He’s glad he waited.

“Technology has come so far in that time,” says Tamborski, vice president. “A decade ago, the CRM system we are integrating did not have those GPS features. But now with everyone using mobile devices, location tracking as the norm and apps being so prevalent, it’s a great way to go.”

Responding just in time

With a smartphone in every team member’s pocket, the decision to implement an app-based GPS tool was cake. Tamborski says the new CRM software launch was completed in March, when the fleet tracking app launched. The team was trained on how to use it in the field.

“Looking back at the hardware we were vetting that provides lots of vehicle diagnostics, which is important when maintaining a fleet, we came to a point where now it makes more sense to just know where our crews are for the time management benefit,” he says.

Labor is the greatest financial burden in a landscape business’s budget, Tamborski points out.

“When I look at two sides of the pie, there’s vehicle maintenance and safety like hard stopping and speeding — and there’s knowing where my guys are at, if they are stalling or going off course,” he says.

For Three Brothers Landscaping, time management is a greater priority, so the app-based GPS tool is a fit. Other companies might find more value in safety and liability features if there’s a history of accidents.

Tamborski says, “We can’t substitute for the diagnostic features, but we can mitigate it by hiring well, training and taking care of equipment. Labor means more to me because of those associated costs.”

Stoudt also leverages an app-based GPS tool that is integrated into the company’s CRM platform.

Location intel is always king, and especially during the spring and fall sales seasons, he says.

“When we get new sales or requests for service, they want us there as quickly as possible,” Stoudt says. “Being able to pull up a dashboard and see where a technician is located is invaluable. They can stop in on the way home or en route to another job.”

The tool also helps with pricing for profitability.

“We have an average cost per thousand square feet of lawn application based on how long it takes a technician, and that information is pulled from when someone starts and stops (on the app),” Stoudt says.

By pulling start-and-stop-time reports, Stoudt has mastered the labor hours equation. “We have it down to a pretty good science,” he says, figuring about 1½ to 2 minutes of labor time per 1,000 square feet. These numbers flow into scheduling efficiency, too. “We know how many acres we need to accomplish, and we have seven or eight hours of time to fill per day.”

For now, Stoudt has opted out of investing in plug-in GPS devices. “We might eventually get into it, but app technology is progressing so fast, and we’ve come to a realization that it’s easier to get a cell phone for our techs,” he says. “I’m pretty sure that soon, the app won’t even need to be on and running to track location.”

The intel factors

GPS tracking has come a long way since Danielle Padilla’s parents started Padilla Group in 1987. The hard-wired equipment included a dashboard unit and key cards to swipe upon arrival and departure of each job. “In order to do job tracking, you had a red card and a white card,” explains Padilla, owner and president of the Brentwood, California-based family business. “You’d swipe the white card when you arrived and red card when you left — super old-school.”

“We never do it as a way to watch them. No one is sitting on the screen making sure they go from one location to the next.” — Danielle Padilla, owner and president, Padilla Group

Padilla says, “We’ve come a long way from swiping to being able to see ‘the breadcrumbs.’”

When Padilla took ownership in 2013, she transitioned to a GPS plug-in, “a game changer,” she says. The simple plug-in device is a far cry from the clunky first-gen tech it replaced, though at the time, the system was visionary with Padilla Group as a progressive early adopter. The GPS links to their fleet management software, which plays well the CRM platform.

“We get all the hard-breaking and acceleration information so we can have conversations directly with employees instead of making general safety comments,” she says. “The people you want to hear the message tend to not hear it.”

By no means is Padilla micromanaging her crews. Mostly, she looks for red flags like mileage overage or late job starts. “We never do it as a way to watch them,” she says. “No one is sitting on the screen making sure they go from one location to the next.”

However, the company’s GPS and fleet management system has been a liability saver, particularly at a retail site. A parking lot superintendent from Padilla Group was sweeping the lot and someone slipped on a hamburger bun, of all things.

“The guy tried to sue me and our client,” Padilla says. “Because our sweeper truck ‘had the breadcrumbs,’ it showed the pattern we followed in the lot while sweeping it.’”

Records proved the bun-dropping site had been swept. “It saved me and the client from being involved in a costly lawsuit,” she says.

Padilla Group has an in-house porter service and golf carts in its fleet because some properties do not require a vehicle and a smaller mode of transportation is more suitable. While one of her crewmembers was unloading a trash bag from the cart, someone stole the wheel and drove off.

“Because of the GPS, we identified the cart was stolen and the police dispatched an officer and it was recovered by the next day,” Padilla says.

A similar situation occurred at a shopping center account with one of Padilla Group’s trucks. “We were able to recover it within an hour,” she says. Again, all thanks to GPS tracking.

Equally convenient is when supervisors can easily find a truck in the field as they are checking in with crews rather than texting, “Where are you? Which jobsite are you completing?” The tool saves a lot of back-and-forth and allows crews to be focused on the task at hand.

“If they don’t have to bother someone in the office, that’s a bonus,” Padilla adds.

Occasionally, a client will question how long a crew serviced a site. Providing detailed start and stop times offers a high level of transparency that customers appreciate, and it builds trust. “They know we maintain reports and we can share that information,” Padilla says.

She wouldn’t call the time tracking a selling point for clients, necessarily. “But it puts some customers at ease who have had experiences where liabilities come from tenants, because we do a lot of commercial work,” Padilla says.

Overall, she says, “It’s a reinforcement of the value we bring.”

Big brother, who?

How do team members feel about location tracking? When GPS and fleet management software initially rolled out, a loud conversation in the market centered on how to reassure employees that the tool was a win, not a watchdog.

Are crew members still feeling a big-brother burden from these productivity-driving, safety platforms? Not really.

“When we deployed GPS and fleet tracking, we didn’t get any negative feedback,” Padilla says.

Though there were a couple of team members who grumbled.

“With a phone in their pockets, the app tracks when we service a lawn and we can see the grid pattern creative with walking steps or a riding machine, which is key for efficiency and efficacy.” — Chris Stoudt, president, Stout Lawn Care

“We realized why,” she says. “It was because they were doing things they were not supposed to be doing, and they didn’t stay with the company long after that. It almost weeds out the people who are not a good fit for you. You want honest employees who are transparent, so GPS can be a huge benefit to get the type of employees most owners want, which is honest people.”

Acceptance and adoption are all about how you explain the purpose of GPS and fleet management, Padilla says.

“If you do think there will be resistance from your team, the best way to deploy it is to explain how it will benefit them,” she says. “Explain how it protects them as employees and that you want them to go back home to their families and this provides a safe environment for everyone.”

If deploying GPS and dash cams, consider a gradual transition, Padilla suggests, noting that lack of cameras is probably a reason why employees didn’t push back when the company integrated GPS. “When people know they are constantly being watched, that’s a little different,” she says. However, she sees advantages from a hit-and-run standpoint and preventing false accusations following accidents, which have never been an issue for her company.

Some insurance companies offer discounts for companies that implement dash cams.

Stoudt is also concerned that his people would interpret dash cams in their vehicles as an “I don’t trust you” statement. For now, it’s not worth it, he says. “I don’t think it’s truly necessary for us — though maybe if you are driving big rigs, I see a benefit from a liability standpoint.”

Stoudt has seen companies equipping technicians with body cams so they can track walking paths for lawn care routes, for example. He quips, “That’s going a little too far for me.” The app-based GPS tool he uses does track movement but does not record images.

But what’s in reach — in a big way — is how his GPS app integrated within the CRM talks numbers that matter so he can streamline operations and optimize training. He says, “With a phone in their pockets, the app tracks when we service a lawn and we can see the grid pattern creative with walking steps or a riding machine, which is key for efficiency and efficacy.”