Fleetmatics GPS tracking system helps gardening company save £20,000 in a year

Apr 19, 2015 • Fleet Technology • News • fleetmatics • telematics • Town and Country Gardens

UK Gardening firm Town & County Gardens turn to Fleetmatics telematics solution to trim their costs...

Keeping on top off staff working hours can be time consuming and complicated, especially for companies that rely on employees to log their own hours. In order to get clarity on staff hours and combat unnecessary spending on unwarranted overtime, the gardening and landscaping company Town & Country Gardens introduced Fleetmatics GPS vehicle tracking throughout their fleet. Since signing up with Fleetmatics REVEAL nearly two years ago, the company has seen some concrete results.

Based in Fulham, South London, Town & Country Gardens has been offering a wide range of gardening services including garden maintenance, landscaping and tree surgery for over 20 years. The company operates a fleet consisting of six vans, some equipped for gardening and others for landscaping purposes.

Currently, the company has 14 core staff, but the number of employees nearly doubles when extra help is hired during the summer. This used to boost the overspending on staff hours even further, until Director Ben Skinner decided to put an end to it. After researching different providers on a vehicle tracking comparison website, he decided to sign up to Fleetmatics REVEAL, which was the most the cost-efficient option available.

We used to rely on our staff to report their own hours at the end of the day when they returned on site, but this meant that we ended up paying for a lot of hours that were just not justified - Ben Skinner, Director, Town and Country Gardens

“Before getting Fleetmatics, the biggest problem for us was overspending on staffing hours,” said Mr Skinner “We used to rely on our staff to report their own hours at the end of the day when they returned on site, but this meant that we ended up paying for a lot of hours that were just not justified.

After installing Fleetmatics GPS tracking, the change was almost immediate; in the first year we saved almost £20,000 in staff hours. These savings alone made the introduction of the tracking system worthwhile.”

In addition to the significant savings achieved, since installing REVEAL, the company has seen improvements in other areas of business as well. For Town & Country Gardens, as for many London-based fleets, traffic is a daily problem. With the roads of the Capital often at a standstill, reaching customers in time is an ongoing challenge.

However, REVEAL’s Live Map feature has provided the company with new ways to beat the traffic. “Thanks to the live feed, we can now see if our staff are taking inefficient routes on their way to the next customer. This enables us to redirect them to a better route and avoid unnecessary delays,” Mr Skinner says.