American Pest Management Renews Relationship With FleetMatics to Boost Efficiency

American Pest Management
Manhattan, KS
www.americanpestonline.com
12 Vehicles
Customer Since 2010

It’s a problem that’s existed for centuries, but most people don’t usually think about how to handle termites until after the damage is done. That’s why Ravi Sachdeva, President of American Pest Management, feels that regular maintenance of a home or business against pest infestation is as essential as annual doctor checkups or oil changes for your car.

American Pest Management was started with a simple Yellow Pages ad placed by Sachdeva’s parents, and has been serving residential and commercial clients in Kansas and Missouri since 1979. Sachdeva took over operations in 1998, continuing the philosophy of a holistic approach that ensures the health of a home or business while also considering that of the environment and inhabitants.

The company protects close to 6,000 clients from termites and other insects all the way up to rodents, snakes, birds and other wildlife. Many of those clients have been with American Pest Management since the beginning. Naturally, customer service is imperative for this company’s success.

Reduced Idling, Increased Efficiency

With such a high volume of service calls, Sachdeva realized that idling time could eat away at his company’s productivity and cost-efficiency. “The trucks were running while no one was in them,” he says. After hearing about FleetMatics from a friend, he decided to implement the GPS fleet tracking system on some of American Pest Management’s vehicles. Immediately, he saw benefits for his business. “We can monitor idling now, and it has been greatly reduced, especially in our Kansas City branch.”

Being able to monitor his fleet in real time has also improved scheduling. “If a customer calls in, I can find the technician closest to the area and get someone there quickly,” says Sachdeva. And that has led to further benefits. “We are able to add one job a day. That makes a huge difference to us. One or two jobs for our technicians means that they are 20 percent more efficient.”

The company’s technicians have seen the benefits of the FleetMatics system as well, he adds. “They are glad to have it on their vehicles. They know it’s not to spy on them but to help us make our jobs more efficient. They’re motivated to do better work. And because they are utilizing better driving habits, because they know they are being observed, it’s improved our image in the community. Not that we were getting many complaints before, but I’ve had one or two reports that the driver was not driving courteously, and we could go on FleetMatics and see who that was and correct the behavior.”

Renewed Commitment

While a reduction in idling time was the desired result, Sachdeva has been able to utilize other features of the system for American Pest Management. “We are using FleetMatics for scheduling much more than we were,” he says “It has been very helpful to us in keeping us competitive in these difficult economic times. It is definitely worth the cost—the fuel cost savings alone pays for the system. The added benefit of having the ability to schedule technicians on the fly is great. The efficient use of our technicians is probably the most important aspect for us.”

After seeing the improvements it helped to provide, Sachdeva chose to continue his relationship with FleetMatics. “The reason we had done it before hadn’t changed, so we decided to renew and add the rest of our fleet.” Without FleetMatics, he says, “there would be a negative impact on our business.”