Pest Control and Bug Exterminator Blog

GPS Vehicle Tracker (Photo credit: Ikhlasul Amal)

Do you own or manage a pest control company? Have you ever found one of your guys asleep in the company truck at a nearby park? Have you happened to spot one of your techs in a drive thru while he was scheduled to be on a job?

What’s it Costing You?

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) estimates that employee fraud costs a company 6% of an organization’s total revenue, or $600 billion annually. If your pest control company’s revenue was $250,000 last year you’ve potentially lost out on $15,000. That’s $15,000 that can be reinvested in your company, helping it grow.

Some of this employee fraud can be directly attributed your tech’s work efficiency. Simply stated, your employees may not be working where they say they are working for the amount of time they say they are.

English: fuel theft seen in wialon gps tracking software (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

GPS Tracking System—Vehicle or Software

One way to reduce employee fraud and improve work efficiency today is to track your technicians with a global positioning system (GPS). Systems can be installed in your fleet of vehicles, or enabled in your tech’s smart phones. Pest control software, like PestPac, ServPro, and Smart Service Enterprise also have GPS features that make tracking your techs easy.

Benefits

GPS tracking systems will allow you to know where your techs are at all times. They can also improve your tech’s efficiency by allowing you to spot check the time on a job, calculate the percentage of time a tech spends driving, and evaluate your dispatching and routing.

With a GPS tracking system, you’ll be able to figure out the quickest routes from point A to point B, just in case your techs don’t know. Managing your route territories will save time and money because techs aren’t driving from one end of the city to the other for service calls frequently throughout the day.

The installation of GPS tracking systems in your fleet will likely lower your costs for your next insurance renewal as well. Don’t be surprised if you also see a significant reduction in traffic incidents. A GPS system will notify you in the event of speeding, sudden stopping, or acceleration.

Another added benefit a GPS system will provide is additional market research. As an owner or manager you’ll be able to see very easily what areas you are servicing most frequently and adjust your marketing and sales efforts accordingly.

Alerts

There are a few alerts pest control companies are finding the most useful while tracking their techs. “Proof of Position” alerts will tell you exactly where your techs are while on the road. For systems installed in a fleet, an “Idle” alert will tell you how long a vehicle has been left running. Some techs will warm up their trucks for 30 minutes or longer on a chilly day, or even leave them running while on a service call. Monitoring this behavior can save money on gas. The “Speed Indicator,”  “Sudden Stopping,” and “Exceeding Acceleration Threshold” alerts will notify you if driving issues need to be addressed with your techs. “Out of Area” and “After Hours” alerts help you see areas that might need improvement and training.

Benefits in Summary 

• Track location of techs
• Manage route territories
• Savings on insurance premiums
• Monitor speed and idling to save on fuel
• Employee safety
• Market Research

Challenges

If you decide to monitor your technicians through GPS tracking, expect some aversion and challenges at first. Some tech’s may feel like “big brother” is standing over them at all times, watching their every move. Some techs may feel that this monitoring is an invasion of their privacy. Others will feel like you do not trust them, and this can lead to some lower employee morale in the workplace. Another challenge to these GPS tracking systems is that they are not always 100% accurate on picking up the actual location.

As an owner or manager of a pest control company you will need to determine how you will inform your techs about your decision to use GPS tracking, or if you will inform them at all. If you do tell them, you’ll need to develop a training plan for proper use and implementation.

Challenges in Summary

•  Technicians feeling like “big brother” is watching over them over them, and that they can’t be trusted
• Feelings of invasion of privacy
• Location accuracy
• Development of a training plan for proper use
• How and when to communicate it to the technicians

What’s Worked for You?

Many benefits can come from the use of GPS tracking systems for your pest control company, but they are not without some challenges. What have been your experiences, both positive and negative, using a GPS tracking system? Has it helped? What methods have worked best?

Related articles

• The advantages of GPS Tracking System
• 5 Must Have Productivity Apps for iPhone/iPad
• Is Your Business Getting Regularly Hosed at the Gas Pump?
• Obama Administration Fights GPS Tracking Ruling

Due to recent changes in pest control laws about “leaving a service ticket at the door” pest control services can now go digital.  Going digital is going green. Digital will save over 58,000 sheets of paper per month!

Bulwark Exterminating is testing new proprietary software in its Mesa, AZ branch office that uses smart phone technology to aid in service routing and customer satisfaction, and plans to implement its new software in all 11 branches nationwide within a month’s time.

Each morning, technicians receive an email on their smart phones, with which they are able to access their routes, customer contact information and custom service notes for those customers. This eliminates the need to receive their daily routes via fax or personally stop at the office before work to clock in.

“We wanted to make sure our technicians and staff are completely happy with the new system before we take all the offices live.” said Adam Seever, Owner and CEO of Bulwark. “Mesa is one of our larger markets, so it was a natural place to start.”

Each service truck will also be installed with a wireless printer, where the technicians will be able to print the customer’s invoice at the time of service. The nature of the software also minimizes any input errors which normally might occur by hand.

One invoice sheet is typically given to the customer and another is taken back to the office for filing. The new printers will print an invoice that measures about one-third the size of a regular sheet of paper. That sheet will be given to the customer and a digital copy will be uploaded to the company’s database. This will save 1 2/3 sheets of paper per service visit. During a month like October when Bulwark serviced 35,000 customers nationwide, this will save over 58,000 sheets. Customers will also be able to have their invoice emailed directly to them, saving paper all together.

“Our software will serve two very important purposes”, Seever said. “We will be able to streamline the service routes of our technicians as well as spare costly resources such as thousands of reams of paper.”

About Bulwark Exterminating

Bulwark Exterminating LLC has a location based in Mesa, AZ and is an industry leader in providing high quality pest control service. Bulwark is fully operational in 7 states, including 11 major cities. While Bulwark provides pest extermination for common insects such as ants, roaches, crickets and spiders, the company’s differentiating specialty is scorpion control. To do this, Bulwark uses the finest and most effective products in the world to solve common pest problems. Bulwark is privately and family owned, has approximately 250 employees and services over 50,000 customers nationwide.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/11/prweb4814444.htm