The prevalence of Smartphones and their technologies have become commonplace in our society. Every Tom, Dick, and Sally either has an iThing or a Robo-phone that is seemingly glued to his or her face 24/7. Even when the face-to-phone bond is broken, God forbid it ever leaves your sight—even for minute—you never know when that next Snapchat will show up.
When we wrote this article back in 2014, according to research conducted by Pew Research Internet Project, over half (58%) of all Americans have a smartphone and around 42% own a tablet of some kind. It’s now 2019 and Pew research indicates 81% of all Americans own a smartphone, while 57% own a tablet of some kind. That’s very steady growth.
To add to that, BroadbandSearch reported in 2016 more people searched via their mobile device than desktop and, in 2017, 67% of all web traffic was conducted from a mobile device.
Now you might be asking, “Adam, what the hell does this have to do with GPS and Route-Optimization—and moreover, me?” To which I would reply that those are valid questions and I am getting to the point right now.
The point, is this: How are we utilizing these technologies on a daily basis, and more importantly, how as a business, are we utilizing them to help us increase our productivity and lower our costs?
Staving Off the Storm: Optimizing Daily Routes
We all know that as management there is the ever-looming dark cloud of how to lower costs. With routing capabilities offered by companies like us, Field Squared, there are some very efficient and effective ways of staving off the storm. By being able to schedule your routes daily, you can ensure that your vehicles and techs have the most efficient routes possible, cutting down on mileage and tech aggravation.
The decrease in miles makes a direct correlation with a decrease in fuel consumption and in turn, much lower fuel costs across your entire fleet. It’s amazing how it’s all connected really, and it all comes back to saving you money. Your vehicles can expect a much healthier, happier, and longer life by minimizing the wear and tear put on them with wasted miles, which helps keep those maintenance costs low. After all, the more time your vehicle is on the road the likelihood of an accident greatly increases. Those costs can add up exponentially when you factor in new tires, oil changes, and of course any damage caused by potential accidents.
Tracking Job Completions via GPS
Cost savings on vehicles isn’t the only advantage of integrating Route-Optimization and GPS capabilities—know who is where, when, and why, in real-time. Easily manage and track your job completions as well as employee/vehicle locations thanks to GPS. Twiddling thumbs will become a thing of the past amongst your techs once they have a designated route that has been efficiently planned for them on a daily basis with map-based job assigning tools.
And speaking of those techs, there are definitely some benefits that they will gain through your implementation of route-optimization tools. Decrease their time on the road and make for a naturally safer work environment by reducing their chances for accidents while on the road. The road is a dangerous place, and the more time spent driving, the easier it becomes to be complacent of that fact. According to the NHTSA, there were over 45,000 vehicles involved in fatal crashes in 2012, accounting for nearly 22,000 deaths. While in the larger scheme of things, it might seem like the chances for your techs to be involved in a fatal crash are small, the threat is still there and very real.
Accurate Time Cards
On a happier note: your techs no longer need to worry about managing their time sheets or worrying about if their hours are right when they get their checks. No one has time to hassle with that, nor should they have to. Route-Optimization has features that allow your techs to be clocked in automatically upon arrival to the job site, allowing them to have one less distraction from the task at hand.
Less time on the road, and less time worrying about the little things all make for a shorter more productive workweek. Your techs can get home to families and back to their lives faster thanks to the extra efficiency provided by your mobile-integrated routing system and scheduling tools. If you want to know how Route-Optimization can save you a whole work day in your week check out our other blog, The Benefits of Route Optimization, to see how we managed, using our tools, to “trim the fat” so-to-speak.
There are almost endless possibilities to the benefits of using Route-Optimization and GPS to help manage workflow and productivity, all while saving you greenbacks. So why not take advantage of it? You deserve it, your techs want it, and your business needs it.
Originally published Dec 30, 2014, updated July 08 2019
Sources:
