Vehicle tracking cuts thousands of pounds off Scottish Communications Group's fuel bill

Security integration specialist Scottish Communications Group has cut thousands of pounds from its annual fuel bill following the introduction of Fleetmatics’s fleet and vehicle tracking technology.

The company supplies integrated security systems including CCTV, access control and digital radio communications, and was seeking real-time insight into the movements of its 10 field-based engineers, who serve commercial customers throughout Scotland as well as some as far afield as the south east of England.

Liam Mowat, technical director of Scottish Communications Group, said: “We primarily decided to use a tracking solution so we could identify and assign support call-outs to the nearest available engineer, due to the fact that we cover such a large geographic customer base.

“Response times are very important in upholding the level of service that our customers expect, and the system has enabled our service desk to respond even more quickly and efficiently.”

Mowat said an additional benefit of the system has been a significant reduction in fuel costs, which adds up to thousands of pounds over the course of a full year.

“By utilising the nearest available engineer and ensuring they follow the optimal route to a customer site, we have reduced travel costs, which has been very significant at a time when we are growing as a company,” he said.

Further efficiencies have been secured by using the timesheet feature and fuel card integration module to save on administrative time and accurately correlate costs.

“The system has enabled us to determine exactly how much fuel has been used on a particular job, how much time was spent and how efficiently we are operating, all of which had to be figured out manually before,” added Mowat.

“There’s absolutely no question that the system has more than paid for itself.”

From a health and safety perspective, Scottish Communications Group is also using the Fleetmatics system to confirm that speed limits are always adhered to.

The company also has the ability to provide evidence in any case where a complaint is made about driver performance, although this is not an issue that the company has encountered to date.