Right on track

If your nursery sends product out for delivery on trucks, it may benefit from a GPS fleet tracking system.

Ashley Jones is director of marketing for NexTraq, a GPS fleet management company with customers ranging from two to 200 vehicles. Jones says NexTraq’s system, which starts at $35 per month, can help growers in several ways.

“You can plug locations in, save them to further automate the process, and with a click of a button it optimizes the route for you,” she said. “You can add locations you need to visit, and it will show you the before and after optimization mileage and time, and it shows you a route that is fully optimized, as well as the amount of time and distance you save.”

NexTraq customers typically have a 20 percent reduction in fuel costs when using the route optimization feature, Jones said.

Stanley Buzek is the safety director and Department of Transportation compliance officer with Creekside Nursery in Hempstead, Texas. Buzek manages Creekside’s fleet of 14 delivery trucks, and has been using Fleetmatics, another GPS fleet tracking company, for almost two years. Before that, the nursery had another tracking system in place. It wasn’t helping.

“Half the time the system was down,” he said. “We couldn’t track the trucks. It was a problem.”

Since the switch, he’s been much happier. Like NexTraq, Fleetmatics offers a myriad of options and features, but the standout for Buzek is the ability to see where all of his trucks are at a glance. If he needs one of his drivers to make an unscheduled pickup, instead of having to call around to determine who is where and who can take the job, he just checks Fleetmatics.

Both companies offer integrated Garmin turn-by-turn navigational systems, which helps optimize routes, but also allows the nursery owner or fleet manager to send a delivery point directly to their Garmin without having to make a phone call.

“Just one quick entry on the computer and they’ll know exactly where they need to go,” Buzek said. “It eliminates me looking at a map and talking them through directions on the phone.”

The system is also useful to the nursery’s sales team.

“We break all our loads down into routes, make a route sheet, and sales gets a list of where everybody is going,” Buzek said. “So if a customer calls the salesperson and says ‘when is my driver going to be here?’ the salesperson can check the system and say, ‘My driver is at his second drop now, he should be getting to his third soon. So he shouldn’t be all too long.’

Also, if a customer calls complaining that your delivery was an hour late, the tracking software allows you to see why the driver was delayed — or if he was even late at all.

“It gives us the ammo we need if we need to back up our driver,” Buzek said.

Both NexTraq and Fleetmatics offer mobile access to their tracking system. Rather than just another bullet point on a sell sheet, the ability to track your fleet by cell phone is one of the best features of the system.

“The mobile app is great, because even when a salesman is on the road he can still look at the mobile app and see where our drivers are and where their loads are at the time,” Buzek said.

Both services offer an “idle alert.” NexTraq has icons on its map that show if a truck is in motion, stopped, or idling.

“At the point where the idling starts to cost the company money, a little dollar sign icon shows up to let them know,” Jones said. “Not to say our customers don’t trust their employees, but the drivers might not realize what they’re doing. If it’s cold or hot, they might be in the van idling while filling out paperwork.”

As DOT compliance and safety officer, Buzek appreciates the built-in safety controls.

“I can set my speed tolerance, so if allow them 3 mph over the posted speed limit and if they exceed it, I get an e-mail, an instant notification,” he said. “I can call them right away and say, ‘Watch what you’re doing.’”

Also, if a truck breaks down, it’s easy to send a location to your in-house mechanic or an outside service company to expedite the repair.

For more:
www.nextraq.com
www.fleetmatics.com
www.creeksidenursery.com