ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘tomtom-telematics’ CATEGORY

UK gas distribution company SGN expects to save about £1million by implementing a driver performance improvement programme across its 2,000-strong fleet.

SGN,  the gas utilities company which operates across the south of England and the whole of Scotland, is using TomTom Telematics technology, including the driver behaviour improvement system OptiDrive 360, to tackle inefficient practice.

During a 100-vehicle trial, SGN reduced the volume of fuel wasted through idling by almost 68% and improved average fuel consumption by 11%.

“The finance department at SGN recognised a huge opportunity for using driver performance data to transform operational efficiency and we now stand to make major savings on both fuel and maintenance,” said Chris Stone, Head of Finance at SGN.

“Prior to implementing this programme, the company was wasting 13,000 litres a month through vehicle idling alone, but now we are able to provide drivers and managers with visibility around problem trends and the reasons why they occur.

“We understand drivers don’t intentionally drive badly so this isn’t about punishing them. Instead, we are focused on working with our employees to help them perform more efficiently and safely on the road.”

OptiDrive 360 scores drivers based on a range of key performance indicators including speeding, driving events, idling and gear shifting and constant speed. Regular performance reports are shared with managers, allowing them to work with individual drivers to tackle any specific issues.

The TomTom system also integrates with SGN’s fleet management provider Inchcape. This means Inchcape is given access to live engine fault code data, allowing them to conduct pre-emptive maintenance work when required.

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TomTom Telematics is using its fleet management expertise to develop connected car services. The first pilot is with a leading European vehicle importer.

In a national pilot across Holland, leading European car importer Pon’s Automobiel Handel will deploy connected car technology to deliver real-time information about their vehicles’ status and performance to customers and dealerships.  The company will use TomTom Telematics'  cloud-based services platform and its mobile app development expertise that draws upon vehicle dashboard information.

“TomTom Telematics has more than 15 years of experience providing data insights for fleet management,” said Thomas Schmidt, Managing Director. “Developments in connected car technology are now opening up new opportunities for us to underpin innovative solutions for consumers and the wider automotive industry.”

The partnership with Pon will enable car owners to receive feedback and advice about their vehicles on their smartphones – from dashboard indicators, driver performance information, mileage and battery level to car location and door-lock status. Alongside many other features, driver score rankings will allow for competition between drivers and help them to save fuel, drive more safely.

Car engine status and maintenance information can also be made available to dealerships, if authorised by the car owner. This will allow drivers to select their preferred dealer for all their vehicle service requirements and provides dealers with more opportunities to liaise with customers and improve service standards.

“The market-leading advancements TomTom Telematics is offering in cloud services for the connected car are enabling us to raise the bar in customer support and takes service provision from our dealerships to a whole new level,” said Pon Service Director, Tjeerd Tuitel.

Schmidt added: “We are proud to add telematics to the navigation products TomTom already offers the automotive industry and look forward to growing our collaborations with industry partners to use our robust platform and connected car technology to improve company service levels, road safety, sustainability and the driver experience.”

 

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Giles Margerison, Sales Director UK & Ireland at TomTom Telematics, looks at the cost and efficiency benefits of improving driving performance standards.

Improved driving performance standards has long been an under-appreciated method for unlocking cost savings, improving safety levels and boosting efficiency for field service companies.  There is an abiding perception that controlling such a wildly differing variable is a monumental task – one that requires vast resource and has no guarantee of success. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

One problem is that old habits really do die hard. Getting an employee to change the way they drive requires a significant adjustment in behaviour.  Furthermore, there is a wide range of behaviours associated with each identifiable driving characteristic, meaning many companies simply do not know where to start when it comes to analysing data, if there is any.

Each of these challenges has a solution – and the benefits are potentially huge.

1. Involve your drivers

   Change does not need to scare employees, even when it involves the monitoring of driving standards. When implementing a performance programme, it is important to involve drivers in discussions from the outset, including union representation if appropriate. This allows them to ask questions, raise concerns and start a two-way dialogue that helps to demystify the process.

   Change does not need to scare employees, even when it involves the monitoring of driving standards

   Creating advocates and champions also helps. Instilling a sense of pride and responsibility in selected members of staff puts them in a position where they can spread the word and highlight the benefits of driving more efficiently. These might range from improved safety to cost savings that can help to safeguard jobs in the long term.

    

   Creating a specific company ‘mission statement’ and building this into employee inductions can help to drive the message home, stressing the importance of aligning company values with driving for work purposes

   The policy could also outline what consequences might be faced as a result of breaches of expected standards, such as speeding or reckless driving. Any disciplinary process should be clearly outlined and communicated, while giving staff the right to reply. Equally, if there is a programme for incentivising and rewarding drivers, this should be ingrained in policy too.

2. Set clear objectives

   When it comes to driver behaviour, its significance differs depending on the business. This means setting clear objectives which are dependent on organisational goals and choosing which aspect your company wants to improve upon.

   Perhaps boosting customer service levels is the main aim. Data such as vehicle off road (VOR) time is incredibly helpful here, as is the amount of orders or jobs lost during these periods. Identify the most appropriate data sets and set a baseline for the minimum expected standards. Any deviation from that baseline could then be highlighted, allowing management to target specific issues through training and consultation.

   The amount of data available is greater than ever but collecting, analysing and reporting on it does not have to be an overly arduous task. Telematics systems are now more sophisticated than ever, creating individual profiles for drivers based on their performance in a number of key areas related to safe and efficient driving.

   Management can drill down into specific areas of performance to gain greater insight into specific problems. Data is available on a range of behaviours, including speeding, fuel consumption, harsh steering and braking, idling, gear changes and constant speed.

   Devices even provide predictive advice that unlocks even greater fuel savings.

   Drivers can get advice in real-time through their driver terminal to inform them where they are able to improve. Devices even provide predictive advice that unlocks even greater fuel savings. Drivers are told when to take their foot off the accelerator on the approach to roundabouts or junctions, allowing them to drive in a smoother, more fuel-efficient manner.

    

3. Culture of collaboration

   Real employee engagement is needed to experience long-term change in driver behaviour. Rather than a ‘them and us’ philosophy, putting drivers at the heart of the programme can help them feel empowered and more receptive to change.

   When it comes to getting your workforce on board, incentives such as extra holidays, cash or qualifications for personal development work to your benefit. However, simple recognition and acknowledgement of their efforts can be equally effective. League tables that compare the driving performance of individual drivers are also useful for sparking a sense of healthy competition and giving staff goals to work towards.

There is no one-size fits-all approach to improving driver behaviour and the wealth of data now available to field service companies provides a number of ways for them to tackle the issue, depending on their objectives.

However, by following a set of established guidelines – creating a culture of excellence, providing strong leadership, choosing data to suit objectives and working with employees to achieve improvements – best practice can be achieved.

 

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The emergence of TomTom Telematics as a true platform-as-a-service provider is big news for field service companies.  In Part Two of our report from the company's Developers Conference, we ask whether it means evolution or revolution for the telematics sector in general.

In Part One of this report from TomTom Telematics' Developers Conference, we heard how the combination of open-architecture hardware and the launch of the its App Store is transforming the telematics giant into a true Platform-as-a-Service provider and one-stop shop for mobile workforce management

Here, we take a deeper look at the potential impact the development could have on the telematics market. Indeed, in the excitement of the day there was talk of revolution as well as evolution. Would TomTom becoming an all encompassing platform for telematics, change the way we build our telematics solutions in the not too distant future? What will be its role in the emergence of the connected vehicle?

“We want to make it as easy as iTunes or the Salesforce app exchange” claimed George De Boer, International Alliance Manager at TomTom Telematics. “You just go to your appstore, you download your software and you install it”

“As easy as consumers are finding it to install an app we want to make telematics as easy for them as well” he added.

Indeed, it is an interesting and attractive proposition: one that could mean each company could essentially cherry pick the right apps that are best suited to their organisation and then build a bespoke telematics solution that meets their exact requirements.

App partners

One of the developers that has opted to build an app for the TomTom platform is Magenta Technologies, whose Maxoptra tool provides companies with a dynamic scheduling engine, a key tool for many large field service companies. Alexei Badjanov, Head of Development for Magenta believes this new approach to building a telematics solution is absolutley the future.

“The platform is the key” Badjanov comments “There is a wide number of telematics providers in the world but the one that has the most applications will be the leader”

Indeed this is very true; in one sense TomTom have not broken new ground. Other telematics providers such as Telogis and Trimble have both developed something akin to a telematics based platform some time ago,. However, unlike TomTom, they opted to focus more on developing their own apps within an ecosystem as opposed to the open architecture approach taken by the Dutch firm.

Of course whilst TomTom’s move to position themselves as a central hub upon which to build a telematics solution is both a clever and forward looking one, there is a strong argument that it was forced upon them, as with the onset of the connected vehicle they faced a choice of evolve or die.

However, where as the imminent arrival of connected vehicles would once have possibly meant ringing the death bells for TomTom, now the connected vehicle brings with it opportunity for both the telematics provider and their field service customers alike.

The connected vehicle

At a telematics conference the connected vehicle was bound to be a key topic that dominated conversations throughout the day, with the consensus being that the connected vehicle has finally made the transition from exciting potential to tangible reality.

“It’s already happening, It’s already here” commented Taco van der Leij, Global VP of Marketing for TomTom Telematics.

But just what does the connected vehicle actually mean to field service companies? Is it not just a case of the same telematics, just now being fitted as standard by the vehicle OEMs? In fact Van der Leij thinks the impact of the connected fleet will be far wider. “What you will see is the number of applications in this industry will multiply, so you will get much bigger scope and different possibilities for field service companies to actually enhance their business.”

“Basically what you see with a normal business environment in the office, Cloud solutions are already there, driving more and more applications. With all commercial vehicles being connected we will see the same happening for mobile workers also”

De Boer also echoed his colleagues sentiments when the conversation turned to the connected car.

“I’m seeing even more possibilities” he says as we discuss some of the obvious benefits to workflows when having seamless connectivity between the vehicle and the office.

“The service engineer that goes to his customer and uses some of the spare parts in his van for example. If he uses the connection of a barcode scanner and our link.connect API, he can scan the spare parts and the warehouse can start preparing the box that he needs to have for the next day.” He explains before concluding “The connected vehicle is really all about further optimising the business process”

In fact this final summation acts well as headline for what the TomTom Developers Conference was all about: further optimising the business process.

But beyond that, it was a day when we saw TomTom evolve from a pure play telematics provider to fully fledged telematics platform and if the connected vehicle is going to change everything in the telematics industry, TomTom Telematics look set to be right there at the heart of the community continuing to drive change and innovation.

 

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The great and the good of the telematics industry arrived in Amsterdam for the TomTom Telematics' Developers Conference and left with a new vision of what telematics may look like in the not so distant future...

It’s a strange quirk of fate at the moment that almost every other event in the European field service calendar seems to be held in the wonderful city of Amsterdam. The Dutch capital has become something of a European hub for field service in recent years and another event to add to that list was this year’s TomTom Telematics’ Developers Conference.

However, given that the telematics giant have their headquarters in Amsterdam, perhaps the decision to host their annual conference in the City too, was more about taking advantage of being on home turf. The one-day conference was held at the De Hallen centre, a former tram depot. What better place then for members of the telematics industry to come together to discuss both the latest trends in technology and how they can help in overcoming the seemingly perennial challenges of reducing fuel costs, improving driver behaviour and of course getting field engineers to the right place, on time, everytime?

And whether it was a reflection of the sense of community in the area we found ourselves in or the ongoing effort of TomTom to bring those operating in various pockets of the telematics world together, there was a true sense of community across the day’s event.

It was fantastic to see developers, providers and end users from all across the continent and beyond – even as far as Malaysia and Morocco - all coming together to discuss best practices and new ideas across the break out sessions and in the networking zone throughout the day.

 

It would have been easy for TomTom to attempt to shoe-horn a number of sales pitches in throughout the day but instead the sessions were focused much more on problem solving, emerging technologies or case studies of how companies are using telematics to improve their workflow, including an excellent session with the Rotterdam Fire Service, which really brought home just how important a role technology can play for an organisation for whom getting to their next job on time really is a matter of life and death.

Platform-as-a-Service

Of those sessions that did focus on TomTom and their own offerings there was a very clear message that came through. TomTom Telematics is evolving, they are doing so rapidly and they are quite possibly going to change the way we view telematics forever as they do so.

A big statement? Perhaps but whilst the core technologies of vehicle tracking and routing of course remain a strong element of what TomTom Telematics offer, they can no longer be considered as simply a pure play telematics provider. Instead they have grown and developed, becoming very much a fully fledged Platform-as-a-Service provider within the telematics space in a move seemingly modeled on Salesforce’s approach to CRM.

It is a move that has been gaining momentum for a while: last year in an exclusive interview with Field Service News, Giles Margerison talked at length about the importance of their focus on establishing three separate APIs to make connectivity to the TomTom Telematics platform as simple as possible.

 

The TomTom app store

However, the momentum has now really kicked in with TomTom using the Developer Conference to officially launch their new app store. Even at launch this was full of various  apps provided by both the numerous developers attending and demonstrating their solutions at the conference, and the many, many more out in the wider TomTom ecosystem.

George De Boer, International Alliance Manager at TomTom Telematics commented: “We started out as a telematics company making sure fleet managers could manage their fleet but as soon as we introduced the connected navigation, together with telematics it soon became a solution that you could use for optimising your business processes.” “So we went from purely managing fuel and savings on the wear and tear on the vehicle to becoming an end-to-end manufacturer and supplier of a solution that could be used throughout the whole business process.”

Whilst TomTom have now placed themselves firmly at the heart of this telematics revolution, the responsibility for driving the technology forward seems to be very much shared between TomTom themselves, their developer partners and, most importantly, their customers.

 

The customer role

One such customer which has worked closely with TomTom in a relationship that sees both companies driving the use of telematics forward as they work alongside each other, is UK utilities company Scotia Gas Networks (SGN).

With a remit to maintain 74,000km of gas main pipe within the UK, and a fleet of over 2,000 vehicles, plus SLAs that include response times of just one hour, keeping track of the fleet is absolutely vital for SGN.

Having originally implemented the TomTom Telematics system for just point-to-point referencing - knowing where the vehicle is, and using the system for time sheet validation and so on - SGN soon realised that they could achieve much more with the WebFleet system.

“Straight away I knew what TomTom could do for us” recalls Chris Stone, SGN Head of Finance. “We’ve evolved now into a relationship where we are trying to do more and more. In fact we are pioneering a lot of what TomTom do and what they can do,” he adds

 

Indeed Stone, and SGN’s open approach to working closely with TomTom on their new developments is yielding far greater dividends than a more hands-off approach might. “I like to get two or three benefits out of a system I invest in.” states Stone “Yes we can put a tracking system in our vehicles and we can track them but what else can we get out of it? Well we can get driver behaviour, fuel efficiency, economy…. there are all these other bolt-ons”

However, whilst there are clear benefits for establishing such a close working relationship with your technology partners and adopting a leading edge appetite for utilising new technology, to continuously enhance your service standards and improve margins, it is not an approach all companies can take. After all, not every company has the influence of a utilities company with a fleet of  2,000.

However, the emergence of TomTom as a platform provider is big news for companies of all sizes.

Look out for Part 2 of our report, where we’ll hear more about TomTom’s new App Store. Is it set to revolutionise the way we build our telematics solutions in the not too distant future? What will be its role in the emergence of the connected vehicle?

 

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Improving its engineers' driving skills with TomTom Telematics Optidrive 360  has helped ventilation product manufacturer EnviroVent cut its annual fuel bill by £36,000.

Ventilation product manufacturer EnviroVent has cut fuel consumption by 10 per cent using TomTom Telematics Optidrive 360 technology to improve driver behaviour, making annual fuel savings of £36,000.

The company is using TomTom's OptiDrive 360 to establish a performance improvement initiative across its nationwide fleet of 45 vans.

“Empowering our drivers with advice and feedback on how to drive more safely and fuel-efficiently led to immediate fuel saving and by introducing a programme to incentivise further improvements we expect to realise even greater benefits over the coming months,” said Jane McLean, Fleet Manager, EnviroVent.

“Our van drivers receive monthly performance reports and have already become quite competitive. We now plan to award prizes to the best performing regional teams to cut fuel consumption further, reduce vehicle maintenance costs and improve our carbon footprint, in line with our commitment to sustainability.”

OptiDrive 360 scores drivers based on a range of key performance indicators including speeding, driving events, idling and gear shifting and constant speed. All performance data is made available to managers and drivers in Webfleet, the fleet management software from TomTom Telematics, with direct feedback and driving advice offered to drivers via their in-vehicle driver terminals.

EnviroVent is also using Webfleet  to improve customer response times by allocating jobs to its engineers and installers and routing them to customers more quickly and efficiently.

 

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TomTom Telematics has been awarded the Best Commercial Vehicle Systems Integrator for 2015 by TU-Automotive.

The award recognises the impact of TomTom’s cloud-based SaaS platform, WEBFLEET, and was announced at the TU-Automotive Awards Ceremony in Novi, Michigan. According to the judges, TomTom Telematics was selected because of “their progressive attitude, multi-faceted solution and ability to innovate”.

TomTom Telematics has cultivated a growing eco-system of more than 300 software and hardware partners unique in the fleet management industry, with all applications published in its App Centre.

The WEBFLEET.connect API allows third party software partners access to all field data generated by drivers and vehicles, in the same way they have access to all processed and aggregated data provided by WEBFLEET.

The company also provides additional .connect APIs for all of its in-vehicle equipment, allowing third party hardware to connect smoothly to its telematics black box by using it as in-vehicle communications hub. By taking advantage of OBDII based data sets on smartphone applications or accessing instant in-vehicle and office-based data streams on TomTom Telematics driver terminals, partners can provide customised applications easily.

 

“As the connected car space continues to grow and gain momentum, staying ahead of the curve and continually innovating is no mean feat,” said Krystyna Grant, director, TU-Automotive.

TomTom Telematics open platform approach is integral to the company's strategy and has resulted in the creation of an end-to-end fleet management system, which allows seamless data flow between drivers, vehicle and office. New applications have been produced to help customers digitise business processes and benefit from even greater efficiencies.

“It is extremely gratifying to have TU-Automotive validate our approach, especially as we continue to invest in our APIs, SDKs and partner ecosystem,” said Thomas Schmidt, managing director, TomTom Telematics.

“We are committed to delivering value to our fleet customers across industries. The best way to do that is to make integration with industry-specific solutions easy and efficient. Through our partner ecosystem, App Center and WEBFLEET platform, we are able to deliver value and improve the bottom line for more than 35,000 organisations worldwide.”

 

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TomTom Telematics is bringing IT professionals and app/software developers together to take the industry to the next level at its unique .connect Developer Conference 2015.

Now in its second year, the conference will take place on June 9 in Amsterdam. Attendees will be able to share ideas, experiences and best practice while discovering the latest opportunities in connected applications for business vehicles during the full-day event.

A number of inspiring technical sessions will help delegates make best use of the APIs and SDKs provided with TomTom's open telematics platform WEBFLEET, stimulating the development of more groundbreaking apps and integrations. Commercial support will also be provided, giving developers guidance on how to bring connected vehicle solutions to market that address the current and future needs of businesses in a variety of market sectors.

“Last year’s conference proved a resounding success with delegates attending from 12 countries across the globe and we are looking forward to building on the momentum this year,” said Taco van der Leij, VP Marketing, TomTom Telematics.

“We currently stand on the verge of an exciting new era for the fleet management industry, with ever increasing possibilities for the creation of new industry solutions that harness the power of connected vehicles. Together with our partners we want to create new apps and integrations that will offer innovative benefits to customers in any industry, operating any type of vehicle fleet. Whether focused on driver behaviour, safety, efficiency, productivity or customer service, these new technologies will help to revolutionise business processes through greater levels of automation and insight and ultimately bring the technology closer to the driver."

 

The .connect Developer Conference will also provide delegates with information on WEBFLEET's latest features. These include OptiDrive 360, a driver behaviour tool providing real-time, predictive advice on performance; Remaining Driving Times, which monitors driver hours for working time compliance; and the Mobile Device Management platform, allowing businesses to manage the remote distribution of software for the new customisable PRO8 driver terminal.

With more than 330 partners, TomTom Telematics already has the largest partner ecosystem in the fleet management industry. The market-leading range of apps built in and around the WEBFLEET platform cover a variety of functions -  including CRM and ERP, planning and scheduling, route optimisation, temperature control, mobile printing and lone worker safety - and are all available in the company's App Center.  Integrations are also available for usage based insurance.

 

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Developers and IT professionals interested in attending the .connect Developer Conference 2015 can register at http://business.tomtom.com/ttdc15

 

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Field Service News has recently undertaken an exclusive research project, sponsored by TomTom Telematics to explore the standards of field service companies.

Are they improving or are they falling? Is it that standards as a whole are now under greater scrutiny than ever before as we all become more and more expectant on getting results as soon as we expect them now that we inhabit an age of instant information thanks to the Internet?

Across the next four weeks we will be publishing a series of features that looks at the findings of this research…  what about those companies that are pulling ahead of the competition and not only delivering to their customers’ expectations but exceeding them and delighting them? What tools are they using to do so? What about those falling behind the pack – what are they getting so wrong?

There is also an accompanying report to this series which you can access by clicking this link…

 

About the research:

The research was conducted over a 2-month period in which we contacted members of the field service news online subscription as well as using the reach of Field Service News throughout the social media channels. We had a wide number of respondents from companies of differing size from those with less than 10 mobile workers through to those with over 2,500. Our respondents also came from a diverse collection of industries including Manufacturing, Retail, Healthcare, Transport and Local Government amongst many others.

The types of technology being used:

To establish whether field service standards are falling, improving or just staying static, an important starting point is to explore how significantly some of the technology, which is designed to make life easier for field engineers, is actually being applied. Would we see a dramatic difference in standards between those who are using the latest field service technologies and those that are not? To give us some understanding of the type of technologies that were used we asked our respondents to let us know if they were using  ‘real-time telematics when creating work schedules’, ‘dynamic scheduling and planning’, ‘intelligent scheduling around emergency call outs’. On top of this we also asked how they inform drivers of their jobs and work schedules and whether they offered job-tracking functionality to their customers. So first up lets take a look at who’s using what in field service industries…

Real-time telematics data:

In fact it was a completely even 50:50 split of companies who are and are not using telematics data. We do see bigger trends shift [quote float="left"]Of those companies with 500 or more field engineers 84% of companies using telematics data.

When we look just at those companies in the extremes of both brackets however we certainly see a trend emerging.  Of those companies with 500 or more field engineers 84% of companies using telematics data. This is in stark contrast to those companies that had 50 field workers or less. Here the number of companies using telematics data in real time is just 17%.  

 

Dynamic Scheduling:

At first glance it seems a similar situation with dynamic scheduling also. Of the group as a whole 56% of companies were using some dynamic scheduling. Again looking at the outliers, amongst those companies with 50 engineers or less this figure dips dramatically to just under a quarter of companies (24%). Similarly again as we focus on the larger companies this figure once more leaps to an incredible 89%. Again it seems that those companies with larger workforces are taking more advantage of the tools that are available.

Intelligent Scheduling around emergency call outs:

Given the trends above it would be a safe bet to assume that we would see similar trends in this area also with the largest organisations  predominantly using such tools whilst the smaller companies are either able to cope without out or as yet to see the benefits of the approach. Again starting with the group as a whole we see a very marginal majority of companies using intelligent scheduling around emergency call outs with 54% of companies surveyed using them. Amongst the smallest organisations this comes down to just 17% of companies actually using intelligent scheduling. However, unlike the previous two options (dynamic scheduling and use of real-time data) we see slightly less of a significant leap in those using it. In fact 63% of companies with a large mobile workforce are using intelligent scheduling. Still a considerable majority but not as exaggerated as in the previous two examples.

 

The haves and the have nots:

Before we move forward lets take a moment to stop and consider the reasons for the wide gap between the large and small in terms of the technology they are using. One possible argument that could support the statistics are that perhaps smaller companies may not need such sophisticated methods to maintain the standards they deliver. This is of course will be proven one way or the other later in this report as we look at the varying levels of standards that are apparent amongst companies of all sizes.

This certainly could hold true when we look at both dynamic and intelligent scheduling. As we have looked at before in a number of features there are many levels of scheduling systems available with dynamic and intelligent systems being both the most complicated and the most costly. However, for a small organisation sometimes these types of systems can be impractical as the effort in establishing the correct rules and data logic in place to get the desired results can sometimes be counter productive for a small organisation where a simpler ‘assisted scheduling’ solution would be more suited to their needs.

This logic in some part could also explain the reason why fewer larger companies are using intelligent scheduling, as it is perhaps the most sophisticated form of scheduling engine available currently, so perhaps even prohibitive for larger organisations who are able to operate with just a dynamic system in place?

However, where this theory does fall down is in the discrepancy when we look at the use of real time data.

 

Whilst there are certainly existing arguments about which types of scheduling systems suit companies of varying sizes there can be no doubt that the ability to track driver and field engineer data in real time can only be a positive for a company regardless of size, both in terms of their own internal efficiency as well as the level of service they can deliver? Again as we continue this series we will uncover the truth to this supposition, as with the number of companies offering telematics solutions, the availability of such solutions is high while the costs are reasonably low.

If the evidence supports the theory that such tools will help improve service delivery then it will be hard to see an argument for smaller companies not taking this step at the least.

If you want to know more about this research then you can access the full report by clicking this link.

In the part two of this exclusive series we will look at how field service companies are communicating from the office to the field, what the best in class companies are using and what impact this can have on productivity…

This series is sponsored by: