Fleet Management Solution Reduces Labor Costs By $24,000

O.C. Communications, Inc. is a full service telecommunications contractor specializing in the installation, project management, and maintenance of telecommunication systems throughout California and Nevada. With 225 employees and 80 route trucks, O.C. Communications needed a system to help improve their vehicle maintenance and employee productivity. “We had no automated way to track and monitor vehicle maintenance needs,” says Mike Harding, operations director for O.C. Communications.

In February 2004, O.C. Communications began its quest for a system that would enable its maintenance crew to access diagnostic data quickly and easily. Harding spoke with companies with similar fleet maintenance problems and was referred to Networkfleet, a location-based service from vendor Networkcar, which Harding eventually selected. Networkfleet enables fleet managers to receive scheduled maintenance and diagnostic problem alerts automatically via e-mail or through their personalized Web site portal. “The Networkfleet system sends an alert for each vehicle every 5,000 miles as a reminder to perform scheduled maintenance,” says Harding. “This has provided a tremendous benefit in keeping our vehicles running efficiently,” said Harding.

Using GPS tracking, Networkfleet helps fleet managers track and route their vehicles 24/7 from any computer with an Internet connection. Harding spends more than $5,000 on fuel for his fleet every month, so it’s important that the vehicles are routed most efficiently and that unauthorized driving (e.g. speeding) is minimized. The fleet management solution provides fuel efficiency graphs and idle time data of fleets. In turn, O.C. Communications’ fuel costs have gone down.

Networkfleet has also helped Harding reduce labor costs. “Without Networkfleet, we might have had to hire an additional technician to maintain our fleet,” he explains. “Now, a single fleet maintenance specialist can monitor the status of all vehicles from a single Web site. We expect to see a savings of over $24,000 in labor costs from the use of this system over the next year.”