Perhaps the ultimate gauge of any new program is hearing the words: "I could never go back to the way we did it before."
According to Roy Sutfin, vice president of fleetHQ, that's the overwhelming feeling from the 175 commercial tire locations that were the test bed for fleetHQ's Truck Finder GPS system.
With the GPS- and web-based system, commercial tire dealers can track their sales and service vehicles on a computer screen. This can help improve productivity in sales territories and speed response time to customer needs and emergency roadside service.
“We think the system has great potential for all of our tire dealers, and ultimately their customers,” said Sutfin. “The validation we received in more than a year of testing and usage gave us that confidence. Dealers reported improved response times, faster service calls and reduced overall vehicle mileage. It also allowed them to bill in exact miles, no guesswork, since the system provides the distance between the start and end points of each service call.”
Integrated into Wingfoot’s fleet of cars and trucks used for sales and service calls, the program was launched to independent commercial tire dealers at Goodyear’s Dealer Conference in January.
According to Sutfin, response and interest was excellent. “We sold several of the systems on the spot,” he said. “We expect the majority of our dealers to move forward with the vehicle tracking system this year.”
The “system” includes a vehicle-mounted cell phone with GPS capability installed inside the car or truck. A secure website allows any vehicle in the dealer’s fleet to be selected and mapped in real time.
“We supply the equipment for free, and charge a monthly fee per unit for the web-based monitoring capability,” said Sutfin. “It’s money well spent and eventually we’ll make the system available to our dealers’ customers so they too can track their vehicles in real time.”
According to Charlie Mason, who managed the rollout to the Wingfoot dealer locations, not a week passed in which new ways to utilize the information did not present themselves.
“We ended up using the system to streamline sales calls and territories; to monitor driver behavior and proper vehicle usage. And we used the system to accurately compensate our service drivers for after-hours service calls,” he said.
“But, first and foremost, the Wingfoot dealers loved the system because their dispatchers didn’t have to depend on memory to find their vehicles in the field. When a customer would call for service, they could dispatch the best-equipped service vehicle. With the visual mapping, they knew who was closest.”
Mason said they also didn’t have to rely on the service driver coming back with the mileage for the service call. “With Truck Finder, the dispatcher knows the mileage and exactly how much time was spent on the call. The devil is in the details when it comes to billing, and we now had bulletproof documentation. It’s also a great conflict resolution device. If a customer questioned a bill or the time took to respond, we had the documentation at our fingertips.”
Not that it was designed specifically for this, but the Truck Finder System has helped police find stolen service trucks.
Over the course of a year, the fleetHQ Truck Finder system tracked down four stolen Wingfoot service trucks. “In one instance, the police were able to arrest the thieves within a half hour,” said Mason. “We lead them right to where they took our truck.
“In each case, we got our trucks back with no damage, and with no loss of tires or service equipment. When you’re self-insured, that’s big. On our rigs alone, that’s a $120,000 savings, not to mention the thousands of dollars worth of equipment and tires in the beds.”
Ultimately, Sutfin said Truck Finder GPS is all about reducing down time for fleetHQ customers. “Our charter is servicing our customers and anything we can do to get trucks up and running faster is something we want to pursue. We’re confident that the Truck Finder program is yet another winning solution in our arsenal to support our fleetHQ dealers. It’s made a difference to those in Wingfoot. We are confident it’s going to make a world of difference to our independent dealers and customers as well.”