Excel Driver Services Improves Driver Safety With FleetMatics
Excel Driver Services
Arvada, CO
www.exceldriverservices.us
40 Vehicles
Customer Since August 2010
Excel Driver Services provides driver training programs and solutions to all aspects of transportation, instructing commercial vehicle operators as well as teens. The overriding focus for their business is safety, for employees and students alike.
With the 40 vehicles in their fleet on the road at any time—and often being operated by trainees at the early end of the experience curve—it became apparent to Excel’s management that an accurate fleet tracking system was necessary for their operations.
“We teach individuals how to drive commercial motor vehicles for other companies,” says Matt Gartner, Safety Manager at Excel Driver Services. “The FleetMatics system helps us validate the amount of time that their employees are getting trained and how long they are behind the wheel. We have the ability to prove to our customers that their employees were getting the training that we said they had.”
Gartner says the company looked at other options before ultimately choosing FleetMatics. “One of them was a cheaper system, but it would only upload the data once a month and send an e-mail to my boss. Having real-time data is very important to him.”
The Live Fleet feature of the FleetMatics system fits that requirement, by using Google Maps API Premier to provide the user with the ability to track vehicle activity in real time. “That’s what I use the most, says Gartner. “It’s great to just know where our trucks are, what they are doing and if we have any issues out there.”
The Reporting capabilities have also helped Excel to improve internal efficiencies as well. In addition to the Idling Report, which provides true idle times for all the vehicles in Excel’s fleet, “we use the Multi State Mileage Report to calculate our fuel tax at the end of each month,” says Gartner. “The Detailed Report has been really key to helping us figure out issues along the way. It shows over-mileage on the trucks when they are doing training. It shows me if the drivers are going the right way or the wrong way, shows us speeding events and shows where the drivers have been. We can pinpoint the paths.”
While the benefits of a vehicle tracking system were apparent to upper management at Excel, Gartner says that some of the drivers weren’t immediately convinced. “We’ve had a lot of resistance. They feel ‘Big Brother’ is watching them, and they don’t want to be looked over. But we’re not using the system to micromanage them; we use it to pull data out to prove to our customers that their guys were in fact behind the wheel for the said amount of time.”
Keeping tabs on so many drivers can be an arduous task, but Gartner says that one feature of the FleetMatics system has made that easier. “Dashboard has helped curb our speeding issues. We were getting speeding alerts several times a day. Colorado’s speed limit ranges from 55 to 75 on the highways and we were getting speeding alerts in the 80s. We rarely get e-mail alerts anymore because we have really been enforcing it.”
In the process, adds Gartner, Excel has been able to correct “bad behavior” in its employees. “Two have actually been terminated for doing things in the company vehicles that they shouldn’t be, especially excessive speeding. In one case, he said the system was broken, but we had already had the reports run and saved.”
So far, Gartner has been pleased with the FleetMatics system. “When we do have an issue with equipment, I reach out to Customer Support and I get called back within 24 hours,” he says. And Excel is just beginning to maximize the potential FleetMatics can provide. “We are just now looking into the other bells and whistles it offers. We pay for our own fuel, but then account for that with our fees for our customer. So now we are looking at pre-set driving routes to minimize fuel time and idle time. Also, I’m looking into the fleet services to set up alerts to let me know when my vehicles need an oil change.”