Fleet Tracking Taps Fuel Savings

By Brian Albright, Field Technologies magazine

Fleet management has helped this Texas beer distributor reduce monthly fuel expenses by nearly $3,000.

GPS-based fleet management solutions can serve as management’s “eyes” when company vehicles are far from the depot or corporate headquarters. That kind of visibility was exactly what Jim Coker, general manager M.L. Wismer Distributing, based in Baytown, TX, was looking for when he deployed a new fleet tracking system four years ago.

The company is a beer distributor that services the southeastern part of the state. Wismer operates a fleet of 64 vehicles, including a mix of cars, vans, and support vehicles, as well as 15 large delivery trucks. Many of these vehicles are taken home overnight and over the weekend by employees, or operated during weekend hours when there is little supervision at the depot.

According to Coker, he began investigating GPS tracking for his vehicles after talking to another wholesaler that had successfully deployed the Fleetmatics fleet management solution. After looking at a few other vendors, he decided to move forward with Fleetmatics, based on that initial recommendation and the company’s straightforward pricing.

“The biggest thing I wanted to accomplish was to make sure our customer service on the weekend was what it should be,” Coker says. “I wanted to know how many salesmen were at those accounts and how long they spent in their territory.”