Service Source Payroll Story
“Along the way, the speed alerts have played a big role. I think we've only had two accidents company-wide in the last 18 months, that were at-fault. It has a lot to do with the driver's awareness that everybody's watching.” -Bill Rogers, Service Source
Service Source
Industry: Custodial and Maintenance Services
Client: Bill Rogers
“Along the way, the speed alerts have played a big role. I think we’ve only had two accidents company-wide in the last 18 months, that were at fault. It has a lot to do with the driver’s awareness that everybody’s watching.”
Service Source Manages Nationwide Fleet
For twenty-four years, Bill Rodgers has managed the Service Source fleet, providing custodial and maintenance services for local businesses, government entities, and non-profits. Service Source serves more than 25,000 individuals with disabilities nationwide through employment, training, housing, and other support services. Bill says, “We support jobs and job opportunities for adults with disabilities using close to 160 vehicles as we’ve affiliated with other companies around the country.”
Leadership didn’t see the value of fleet tracking until an unfortunate event. “We had four vehicles stolen at one time. After that, I got the approval to go-ahead… which is basically a few generations back from where we are right now with GPS Trackit.”
Driver Speed Alerts Reduce Accident Rate
“There was an accident where our driver was going five miles an hour. He rear-ended a Metro bus in Washington DC and that car was totaled. We do have a risk management program company-wide, and one of my goals is to reduce at-fault accidents within the company. Everybody who drives for the company on behalf of the company has to get there.”
Automated Alerts Increase Driver Retention and Reduce Insurance Costs
Bill points to the cost savings Service Source has experienced, especially on equipment, employee turnover, and lower insurance rates. The lower rates are a result of his entire transportation safety program including the use of GPS tracking devices.
Bill credits GPS Trackit for retaining drivers, “When somebody goes six miles an hour over the posted speed limit, I’m going to get an email. That driver’s supervisor’s going to get an email and it runs right up the chain.”
Service Source Saves on Inactive Vehicles During the Pandemic
Bill used the GPS Tracking to save money on insurance during the pandemic.
“We’ve had several of our shops or our locations shut down and people furloughed. It’s the worst thing to have 50 vehicles lying around with nothing to do. However, we got our insurance carrier to relax the insurance coverage, giving us a reduced rate in part due to our use of GPS Trackit.”
“At first the insurance company didn’t believe that Service Source could prove the vehicles would stay inactive, “And one of the only ways that they could do that is to be assured that these vehicles weren’t going to be driven.”
“I had to pinkie swear that the vehicles aren’t going to be driven. I said, we also have a GPS device in each vehicle. It just allowed that to happen a lot more easily. And we saved a few thousand dollars a month, in the process.”
Experiencing Fuel Savings with GPS Trackit Audits
“I audit the fuel bills sporadically. I’ll just pick a vehicle, any vehicle, date, and gas purchase, say it’s an Exxon station and van X, then check the GPS tracking and see if van X was at that gas station at the same time as the purchase, just to make sure. Since we don’t have gas cards currently attached to the vehicles, I want to make sure that the gas is being used on the vehicle.”
Locating Missing Fleet Vehicles
“We had an employee who was picked up and arrested, while he was driving one of our trucks.
We knew the truck was taken someplace, but we didn’t know where it was taken to. So the manager of that person calls and asks, “Where’s my truck?” Since I wasn’t near a computer, I used the GPS Trackit mobile app and gave him the coordinates where it was. So, he went and got the truck.”
Maintaining Accurate Hours and Payroll
“I work with our HR department when there may be other problems with the manager or with the employee. These reports are helpful because there could be a suspicion that there was some time not being reported correctly.”
Bill values the ability to keep labor hours and payroll accurate no matter what happens. “Where an employee was saying, they were starting at a certain time in the day. I can go back and find out that no, the guy didn’t start work at 5:30 in the morning and… the vehicle didn’t even start until 7:15.”
“It helped with payroll. Now employees understand that we know if they are spending time in other non-work related activities”.
Weekly Reports Prevent Extra Work for Fleet Managers
Bill is one fleet manager who believes that if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. So, Bill likes being able to set up reports for each of his team managers spread across the United States. These reports let all his local managers handle their own employees.
Bill says that this saves him hours of extra work. “Where a manager might come to me and say, ‘What do I do?’ Instead, I show them how to pull the reports. Then, once a week, you can get an email with the summary of all the speed alerts or the activity for your vehicle or team for the whole week.”