A number of years ago Reeds Ferry installed GPS tracking on all our installation trucks. This means at any time Reed’s Service Dispatcher can tell the exact location of all of our installation teams; so when a customer calls to inquire about our scheduled arrival we’re able to pin down exactly where their shed and installation crew is… “Yes sir. Truck-5 is on Rt 495 North approaching your exit. They will be in your driveway in 17 minutes.”
Our GPS tracking is web based and can be viewed on any browser or mobile device. It shows the location of all our vehicles, estimated times of arrival, traffic and weather conditions, and gives the Installation Team directions to the customer’s home. How cool is that?! Below is shot of 11 of our trucks on the road this morning.
When we first considered adding GPS tracking we were concerned with the “Big Brother is watching” factor. We had a meeting with all our installers to gauge their feeling on the subject. We were concerned that everyone would think we were installing GPS to spy on them; to see if they were spending their afternoon at a local pub… But pretty funny; one of our newest employees raised his hand and said. “If we were at a pub all afternoon wouldn’t customers be calling to say where’s my shed?” Excellent point. Everyone agreed that GPS is only a problem if you’re not doing your job, and if you’re not doing your job it would be found out anyway. In retrospect all our guys find the GPS system to be an asset rather than an intrusion. It sure beats wasting an hour driving around lost in someones neighborhood.
Of course the real bottom line is the advantage to our customer. It’s great to be able to tell folks the exact “where and when” without it being just a guess… We don’t know who first said “We’ve got the technology, let’s use it”, but we agree… Living in the digital age is an amazing thing. And even more amazing to those of us who remember what it was like before it arrived.
-The Shed Ferry
