GPS fleet monitoring session delivers the goods at ANLA Management Clinic
15 Feb, 2008 By: Ron Hall LM Direct!LOUISVILLE, KY — Green Biz Nursery & Landscaping, Fayetteville, NC, is one of a growing number of Green Industry companies relying upon GPS in its service delivery fleets. It’s a trend that will certainly grow, judging by the interest and questions directed at presenter Charlie Allen, Green Biz landscape manager, during and after his half hour presentation at the ANLA Management Clinic here in early February.
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Allen’s contribution was one of dozens of excellent presentations generating interest for the more than 1,000 nursery and landscape company owners and managers that attend the annual event here at the massive Galt House Hotel on the banks of the Ohio River. The ANLA, of course, is the Washington D.C.-based American Nursery & Landscape Association, which represents the interests of several thousand companies involved in the business of growing and supplying plant material for consumers and the professional landscape trade. Many of these same companies also provide contract landscape services.
Allen explained his company’s positive experiences with GPS during the “Integrating Emerging Technologies into Landscape Operations” session, one of nine educational tracks running simultaneously at the Clinic that afternoon. About 50 people attended that particular session.
GPS is short for Global Positioning System, a constellation of at least 24 medium-earth-orbit satellites that emit precise microwave signals. The signals permit a receiver (often installed in a car, truck or other vehicle) to determine its precise location, speed, direction and time. The U.S. Air Force maintains the satellites at a cost of about $750 million annually but the signals are available to everybody. Many of us are familiar with the technology through the small receivers that we mount in our cars, one of the most popular gift ideas this past holiday season.
But the technology has many applications for business, in particular service delivery businesses. The ability to track service vehicles can and should:
— reduce fuel costs
— decrease overtime costs
— encourage safer driving
— reduce preventative maintenance costs
— increase productivity
— eliminate moonlighting with company vehicles
— reduce timesheet fraud
There are two types of GPS systems — active and passive. Active systems, relying upon cellular and satellite technology, monitor the location, speed and direction of vehicles in real time. In a passive system a vehicle’s usage is monitored and recorded and downloaded, usually daily to a PC at a central location. Both have advantages and disadvantages, but the majority of landscape companies, including Green Biz, choose a passive system because of cost.
With active systems, users can pay anywhere from $40 to $120 monthly per vehicle in cellular or satellite fees. By contrast, there are no monthly fees with a passive system, and once the initial investment has been made in the base station and software (generally about $1,000) and the per-vehicle units ($625 each in the case of the Green Biz vehicles), your system is basically paid off.
Allen said his company has been extremely pleased with the benefits and costs savings realized since it began equipping its service vehicles with GPS units. It now has 17 GPS-equipped vehicles.
Responding to questions from the audience, including one asking if employees felt they were being distrusted or being spied upon, Allen said, for the most part, that doesn’t seem to have been a problem.
“We tell them that it’s all about saving gas. And we all know how expensive that is,” said Allen.
Where to you learn more about or purchase this technology? In most cases you can find local vendors, such as cell phone vendors, that can help educate you. One Web site (there are many) to check out is www.universaltracking.com, Allen advised the audience.
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