Bardi Heating and Air consists of three separate units encompassing construction engineering, commercial service, and design / build / retrofit service groups. Bardi services the greater Atlanta area and currently has 42 service vehicles.

The Bardi credo is "Always, always, always do the right thing." This statement is so critical to the company that it is printed on their business cards.

Paul Reiner, operations manager at Bardi, recently decided to find a GPS tracking system to help him and his team wring out some operational inefficiencies.

An Internet based live vehicle tracking, fleet management, and reporting system, gave him the ease of use and real-time functionality he required, and the covert installation option clinched his selection.

Historically, one of Bardi's most difficult customer relations issues has been the "acquisition fee time charge," which is basically the time between the first on-site assessment of a mechanical problem, the time the service vehicle takes to find the correct parts, and the time the vehicle returns to the job site.

While this drive and pickup time is certainly billable, some of Bardi's customers would dispute the amount of time for which they were billed. Thanks to GPS North America, customers are now provided with a record of their service vehicle's activity, and can confirm they are not paying for a lunch break.

Paul can show a customer a Start / Stop Report detailing a vehicle's path from their job site to the supply house and back to their site. Most of Bardi's customers are so impressed with this operational tool that acquisition time is not a point of contention anymore.

In addition, service technicians feel more comfortable presenting these charges to their customers because the potential for dispute is removed.

Since implementing the system, Paul has seen unapplied billable time fall 40%. This "lost time" is now being correctly billed to customers.

Operational Benefits:

Improved Response Time
Higher Accuracy in Billing
Better Cost Control
Ability to Reroute Service Vehicles Through Traffic
Effective Tool for Employee Review (Accountability and Productivity)

Paul states simply, "If a service company is not using this system, they are losing money, period."

In A Nutshell is a high-end bulk specialty food distributor in the Bay Area of California. Tim Wales founded the company in 1988 and now has over 200 customers ranging from restaurants, exclusive hotels, and bread manufacturers.

Tim was concerned that his salaried driver productivity was slipping. Because of heavy traffic patterns in his main service areas, Tim was unable to comfortably determine delivery expectations. With delivery productivity slipping and no valid explanation from his drivers, Tim decided to implement GPS North America's system, an Internet-based live vehicle tracking, fleet management, and reporting system. With GPS North America's system in place, driver performance went from averaging 18 deliveries a day to 26 in the same hourly time period.

Like many small companies, if deliveries were behind schedule, a warehouse or sales employee would have to drop their current task to pick up the delivery slack to service In A Nutshell’s extremely demanding customer base.

Once the system was in place, driver performance was monitored and became much more efficient, allowing all employees focus on their primary duties. Tim was delighted to see this increase in efficiency spread throughout his entire company.

In an intensive delivery environment, time is money and all delivery points have variable costs involved. In A Nutshell uses the system to help establish a baseline for discounting product or adding surcharges.

For example, now that GPS North America reports are recording the length of stops, In A Nutshell can balance a difficult delivery location, such as Chinatown, against the size of the order to determine the correct pricing model. In A Nutshel now maximizes its business profits in a very accountable way.

Maple Leaf Rain Gutter Service is a contract gutter cleaning, repair, and installation service specializing in condominiums, apartments, and residential businesses from Baltimore, MD to Richmond, VA. The company is based in Fairfax, VA and operates ten vehicles.

Joe Mancuso, owner and president of Maple Leaf, states that his company's success is based on the strategy of very competitive pricing. "Our edge is efficiency and we will not compromise safety or quality."

Joe decided to evaluate various live tracking systems because he did not want his technicians spending unproductive time coming into the office every day to pick up a truck, and then returning to the office to drop off the truck before leaving for home.

Joe selected our system, an Internet-based live vehicle tracking, fleet management, and reporting system, for its ease of use, reporting options, and the ability to access his vehicle data from home.

Joe selected our system, an Internet-based live vehicle tracking, fleet management, and reporting system, for its ease of use, reporting options, and the ability to access his vehicle data from home.

Maple Leaf can now let technicians take the service vehicles home with assurance against any personal use. The technicians have embraced the technology because there is verification against any false accusations. The freedom to allow technicians to leave for jobs directly from home has given the company a 15% increase in gross sales.

GPS North America as a Sales Tool

Prior to installing our system, some technicians were performing unauthorized side jobs. Today, they are paid incentive money to get incremental or "add-on" business. Add-on jobs have increased from 1% to 6% of total jobs.

GPS North America as a Customer Service Tool

When customers inquire, Dispatch can easily estimate when technicians will arrive. Before GPS North America, some customers would call in and state that the technician was at the job for an abnormally short period of time or that they did not even show up at all, resulting in callbacks.

With the system, Customer Service has proof of the length of a service call, and customer callbacks have been eliminated by 50%. Technicians' ability to do same day service has increased by 30%.