Spring Green Reduces Cost
“It's peace of mind knowing that you can see where everybody's been and that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing.” -Jim Bernier, Spring Green
Spring Green
Industry: Lawn & Landscape
Client: Jim Bernier
“Spring Green Lawn Care services customers in Northwest Charlotte with fertilization, weed control, lawn aeration and overseeding.” Owner, Jim Bernier, has been in business for 15 years. With seven vehicles, wasted employee hours and excess fuel costs can add up quickly to hurt business profitability.
Getting Control Over What Really Happens With Your Fleet Trucks
Spring Green Lawn Care uses GPS Trackit fleet management to reduce waste and fraud caused when employees run personal errands while on the clock.
“Sometimes, I’m afraid to look, honestly, because I don’t want to find out something bad. It’s more of a where have they been, how long have they been there. Getting alerts of speeding and hard braking.”
Jim’s biggest concern was “not knowing where the guys were going. Why does it take you so long to get from point A to point B? That really opened my eyes. We really need to be able to track where everybody is going, where they’ve been, and that’s really what precipitated it.”
“Our main problem is we have auditors and coordinators that need to know where the vehicles are at. So for us, it’s really critical that we know where they’re at, so we can go and make sure that they are doing their job the right way in a safe manner.”
Helping Drivers To Become More Productive
GPS Trackit has been valuable in eliminating drivers wasting company time and money.
Jim says, “I have not been able to put a dollar figure on it, but I can say that one individual driving a half hour out of his route, once I saw that, we nipped it in the bud. So, obviously we got savings there.”
“Occasionally, when new people come on, they don’t realize I have that ability to see where they’ve been and say, ‘Hey, why are you there? Why are you at this restaurant for 40 minutes?’ I’m sure there are costs that have been saved. It’s more of developing the culture that you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing, and I can see if you’re not okay.”
Improving Fuel Cost Savings
Engine idling while a truck is parked wastes fuel and leads to premature engine wear. A medium-heavy gas truck can waste 0.8 gallons for every hour of idling, according to US government testing. A diesel delivery truck will waste about the same amount of diesel fuel each hour.
“When the gas costs went through the roof, I was looking at idle times and going, why aren’t you turning your truck off? “
How Would You Describe GPS Trackit?
How Would You Describe GPS Trackit? Above all, Jim appreciates “the peace of mind knowing where his employees have been.”
GPS Trackit Shows Customers We Were There
Jim says it’s been worthwhile to prove to customers his trucks were at the customer’s home, as well as prove they weren’t at other places. That’s worked out both ways to show customers the value of his service and to protect his company from false claims.
Sometimes you may have to prove your company was not there on a certain day. “One person claimed that we sprayed their yard, their dog was sick. Well, we had no trucks even in the area, and I was able to go back to GPS and go look, we didn’t have anybody there that day.”
Jim explains, “We do a very large retirement community, and two times in a row one resident said we were never there. Well, I was able to screenshot every truck that was in there and show him we were there, we did it.”