With a growing customer base across Scotland, NBC Bird & Pest Solutions chose the new solution to keep track of its vehicles in real time. ‘Our pest control technicians are out in the field all over Scotland and, before installing Fleetmatics, it was difficult for us to keep track of where everyone was and for how long they had been on site,’ explained Jo Haugh, Office manager at NBC Bird & Pest Solutions (Scotland).
By logging onto the live map feature with Google mapping functionality, the company can readily identify which technician is nearest to each job site and reach its customers faster. ‘I am able to plan employees’ routes more effectively. Fleetmatics is great for time management; and I can see where everyone is and where they should be,’ she said.
Fleetmatics is also helping NBC Bird & Pest Solutions improving efficiency and productivity, by tackling unauthorised and out-of-hours vehicle usage. ‘Before Fleetmatics, each employee would log their daily mileage for each job and then, at month’s end, I would compare with the previous month to see if there were any discrepancies. We had no way of knowing if they were using the vehicles outside working hours but now thanks to Fleetmatics we do,’ Haugh added. Using the Fleetmatics system, the company now has more insight into when each employee starts and stops work, and how long he or she takes for lunch and breaks.
In addition, the Fleetmatics mobile workforce solution allows NBC to run regular idling reports, with automated alerts set up to notify immediately about excessive periods of idling. With each technician aware of the fact that excessive idling or fewer miles to the gallon will be flagged up, the firm has reported significant reduction in idling, whilst cutting fuel consumption and thus costs.
‘Before we had the Fleetmatics GPS tracking system we had no idea where our pest control technicians were at any point in time,’ concluded Haugh. ‘Now, at a glance, we can see where each vehicle within our fleet is located; we plan our technicians’ routes more effectively, have reduced fuel consumption, improved productivity, raised efficiency levels as well as improved our response times.’