| GPS - The Great Equalizer |
Global Positioning System (GPS) is a technology that allows you to determine the position of something on the
earth with two numbers, a latitude and longitude. A sister technology is AVL or Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL)
and soon to come (Automatic Cell Phone Locator or (ACL). So what does this all mean to a business?
Think of it on the same level as your telephone, a simple device but one that you can never imagine being without.
Right now, each of your businesses includes a person who knows your geographic area like the back of their hand.
This single person is also the single point that all your business is controlled by. Just walk into any company and
listen to the conversation and in a few minutes you can identify who that person is.
GPS is the great equalizer, a tool that makes every person capable of knowing where the customer is located, see
the surrounding streets and roads, and be able to know, yes know, how long it will take the driver to
reach the location or which stop should be first or last.
How do you bring this new tool into your business? Like any tool, it haslimits and comes in different sizes, like
shovels - small medium and backhoe. To start small buy Delorme mapping ($40.00) and any of the GPS
hand-helds by Magellan, (Magellans run from $80.00 to a Gold model for about $300.00 that allows you to store
and recall information stop-by-stop). This will allow you to get a feeling for the limitations of the mapping and tips
and tricks in reading and writing down the latitude and longitude (the two numbers) that pinpoint a location. If you
want one step up on mapping, try MapPoint from Microsoft ($400-$500) which runs on the PC and works with
Magellan.
The next step up is Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL). This allows you to sit at you computer screen and actually
see the path your trucks have taken either at the end of day or during the day (1-3 minute updates). We recommend
that you bring this technology in as an operational aid to your office staff, so that everyone in your office knows
where the trucks are and can use that information to help manage work and customer calls. It is nice when a
customer calls about service and you look up on the computer and can see the service truck is pulling into your
customer location and can tell the customer to look out the window... talk about service! Yes, there will be many
new issues that this tool will bring up, like the drivers meeting to have coffee and breakfast after they leave the
office or misuse of vehicle, speeding, excessive idling, etc., or out-right dishonesty. This tool allows you to know
what the driver knows. If properly used, you can profit by significant productivity gains and an improved labor
pool because now a driver does not need back of the hand knowledge of the area to be
productive. There are many vendors that provide AVL services; some of the leaders are@Road, FleetBoss and
InSight. Expect to pay $600 to $1500 one-time capital costs per vehicle and from $1.00/day to $3.00/day for
monitoring andtracking services.
Both GPS and AVL are add-on tools to your customer records management tools, the software you use to record
customer name, address and to invoice for services provided. The next level is to combine these tools so that when
you first enter the customer address you can get the GPS location with the customer on the phone and know the
correct service route or service date topromise to the customer, just like FedEx or UPS or any of the thousands
ofcompanies that manage fleets.
One last point, as a rule of thumb, portable toilet companies service 4 - 6 units per hour. With the proper application
of GPS and AVL technology you can move that number to 6-8 units an hour, a 25% increase in operational
productivity.
earth with two numbers, a latitude and longitude. A sister technology is AVL or Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL)
and soon to come (Automatic Cell Phone Locator or (ACL). So what does this all mean to a business?
Think of it on the same level as your telephone, a simple device but one that you can never imagine being without.
Right now, each of your businesses includes a person who knows your geographic area like the back of their hand.
This single person is also the single point that all your business is controlled by. Just walk into any company and
listen to the conversation and in a few minutes you can identify who that person is.
GPS is the great equalizer, a tool that makes every person capable of knowing where the customer is located, see
the surrounding streets and roads, and be able to know, yes know, how long it will take the driver to
reach the location or which stop should be first or last.
How do you bring this new tool into your business? Like any tool, it haslimits and comes in different sizes, like
shovels - small medium and backhoe. To start small buy Delorme mapping ($40.00) and any of the GPS
hand-helds by Magellan, (Magellans run from $80.00 to a Gold model for about $300.00 that allows you to store
and recall information stop-by-stop). This will allow you to get a feeling for the limitations of the mapping and tips
and tricks in reading and writing down the latitude and longitude (the two numbers) that pinpoint a location. If you
want one step up on mapping, try MapPoint from Microsoft ($400-$500) which runs on the PC and works with
Magellan.
The next step up is Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL). This allows you to sit at you computer screen and actually
see the path your trucks have taken either at the end of day or during the day (1-3 minute updates). We recommend
that you bring this technology in as an operational aid to your office staff, so that everyone in your office knows
where the trucks are and can use that information to help manage work and customer calls. It is nice when a
customer calls about service and you look up on the computer and can see the service truck is pulling into your
customer location and can tell the customer to look out the window... talk about service! Yes, there will be many
new issues that this tool will bring up, like the drivers meeting to have coffee and breakfast after they leave the
office or misuse of vehicle, speeding, excessive idling, etc., or out-right dishonesty. This tool allows you to know
what the driver knows. If properly used, you can profit by significant productivity gains and an improved labor
pool because now a driver does not need back of the hand knowledge of the area to be
productive. There are many vendors that provide AVL services; some of the leaders are@Road, FleetBoss and
InSight. Expect to pay $600 to $1500 one-time capital costs per vehicle and from $1.00/day to $3.00/day for
monitoring andtracking services.
Both GPS and AVL are add-on tools to your customer records management tools, the software you use to record
customer name, address and to invoice for services provided. The next level is to combine these tools so that when
you first enter the customer address you can get the GPS location with the customer on the phone and know the
correct service route or service date topromise to the customer, just like FedEx or UPS or any of the thousands
ofcompanies that manage fleets.
One last point, as a rule of thumb, portable toilet companies service 4 - 6 units per hour. With the proper application
of GPS and AVL technology you can move that number to 6-8 units an hour, a 25% increase in operational
productivity.
The Sanitation Journal is a monthly trade publication that caters to the portable restroom industry. Each month
thousands of portable restroom operators utilize information from the Journal to aid in business decisions.
Subscribe today and make sure you never miss an issue.
thousands of portable restroom operators utilize information from the Journal to aid in business decisions.
Subscribe today and make sure you never miss an issue.
| By Joel Smith of Clear Computing |
Joel Smith, of Clear Computing, Inc., is a business consultant and software designer for the waste industry. He has
consulted with large and small companies on the use of technology to improve their productivity and operations
since 1988. Call Joel at 732-747-0113 ext 100, email him at joel@clearcomputing.com or visit his company’s
website at www.clearcomputing.com.
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Serving the American Liquid Waste Industry Since 2002