In order to keep up with growing customer demand B&K Boilers Services turned to FleetMatics to help better manage its fleet.
Based in Blackwater, near Camberley, Surrey, B&K Boiler Services has been trading since 1983, covering Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hants and Surrey and now employs 10 registered ‘Gas Safe’ fitters.
However, the system set in place to manage the fitters was becoming unwieldy - when each fitter had completed a job, they had to phone the office to check-in before moving on to the next job.
“As each fitter can complete up to 10 jobs every day, that’s a lot of calls to answer in a week,” said Mark Worthington, owner of B&K Boiler Services. “The sheer volume of calls meant we had to consider hiring an additional admin person.”
The company also received calls from customers asking for a precise time of when the fitter would arrive to their property.
Since the company didn’t know the exact location of each van on the road, the office administrators were unable to accurately predict the time at which the fitter would arrive and scheduling in emergency jobs was complicated.
As a result, Worthington thought that the standard of service his company was providing was weakening. A manager at a nearby company suggested he install a fleet management system and, on recommendation, Worthington chose the GPS Fleet Tracking solution from FleetMatics
Since fitting the FleetMatics GPS fleet tracking system, he has noticed that scheduling of jobs has become more efficient, and that he can better manage his fitters.
“Previously, the average number of jobs completed by a fitter was between 8 to 9 jobs a day, it’s now 9-10 – the FleetMatics GPS system has paid for itself 10 times over,” he said. “Also, if we get an emergency job in, we can locate the nearest fitter and assign the job accordingly and the beauty is we can tell the customer precisely when we will be there.”
The ‘Live Fleet’ tool monitors where all the vehicles are in real-time, indicating whether a fitter is en route to the next job or, if they are still on a job, the office staff can work out how long it will take to complete before moving onto the next one.
A further benefit to the company is the reduction in fuel bills, even though the cost of fuel is continuously on the rise, achieved through a tighter restriction on using company vehicles for personal use. With the FleetMatics ‘Daily Report’ function, B&K is able to see whether a van has been used out of hours or varied from its normal route.
“Since installing the FleetMatics GPS tracker 3 years ago, our van mileage has almost halved – dropping down from 84000 to 45000 miles – that’s a huge reduction in fuel costs to my company,” said Worthington
Due to the monitoring of vehicles, the drivers have also become more punctual and relationships within the company have improved.
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