Heating and plumbing firm uses telematics to guarantee fast response

Heatcare Oil and Gas has been able to guarantee a two-hour emergency response time to its customers 24/7 thanks to using Fleetmatics’ GPS vehicle tracking system.

The company holds contracts with 10 major housing associations, servicing around 10,000 homes across the north-east of Scotland, and has a fleet of 20 vehicles.

“In order for us to meet our two-hour emergency response targets, we needed a GPS vehicle tracking system that allowed us to quickly identify the closest engineer to the residence,” said Darren McLeod, director of Heatcare Oil and Gas.

“We chose the Fleetmatics vehicle tracking system because it is so easy to use and extremely reliable - both of which are quintessential for our business and help us ensure that fast response times and high levels of customer service and satisfaction are maintained."

There are eight people within Heatcare’s main office that log onto the GPS fleet tracking system on a daily basis.

McLeod said: “Looking at the Fleetmatics dashboard, we can easily see where each vehicle is located, whether it’s with a customer or en route to the next job.”

Other additional benefits to the Fleetmatics GPS tracking system relate to workforce management.

“As some of our drivers are on hourly rates, which are very expensive at unsociable times of the day, we use Fleetmatics to back-up our engineers’ timesheets and investigate more closely should there be any discrepancies,” McLeod said.

The vast improvement in driving behaviour hasn’t gone unnoticed either.

McLeod said: “All our vehicles are branded, so it is important that our engineers are complying with the speed limits and rules of the road as they are representing the company.

“Fleetmatics monitors and alerts me to excessive idling times, use of the vehicles out of hours, and speeding violations, which can then be dealt with quickly and effectively.”

Since installing the Fleetmatics GPS vehicle tracking system five years ago, McLeod believes: “We have experienced significant benefits with Fleetmatics both in terms of job productivity and efficiency, as well as an added bonus, lower fuel bills.”