When I started my business many years ago I wanted my business to run like a well oiled machine. That was my sole focus everyday.
Though I had the best of intentions, I fell way short at times. In a nutshell I fell short because I didn’t have the right information available at my disposal. Information that would have saved me a lot of money and countless headaches at the same time.
For instance I was always concerned with what my employees were doing once they took the keys to my work trucks and went about their duties. Were they taking the shortest most direct route to each job site? Were they driving safely along the way? How long were they staying at each stop? Did the information they fill out on their log books match what really happened?
These worries kept me up at night for years on end. Though I went through a lot of trouble trying to only hire the best people possible for the job, once they were hired and on their own I had no way to verify what was happening other than to sneak around like a private eye. Doing so meant even more time invested in the business and less time enjoying myself. Not an ideal setup.
During my second career as a private eye checking up on my staff I discovered lots of things they shouldn’t have been doing. I caught people speeding way over the speed limit, straying way off their scheduled route, lying about where they were, filling out in accurate time sheets to just name a few infractions. I can only speculate about all the things I didn’t catch during these years.
Fleetmatics GPS Tracking would have solved my problems
Fleetmatics is a company that uses GPS technology coupled with some powerful field management tools to make operating your business both easier, and more importantly, less costly than figuring it all out on your own. Sadly I didn’t know this type of technology was available back then. If I did I surely would have been a customer of theirs. It would have made my job easier.
Using Fleetmatics to keep track of all this for me would have played a large role in transforming my operations into that well oiled machine I sought so badly. It also would have clued me in when my staff was doing things inefficiently and keep me from having to play private eye from time to time in an attempt to keep everyone honest. I could have done it all from my office, or mobile device.
While what I described so far is in and of itself pretty valuable, it is only the tip of the iceberg as far as what their company can provide. Their services are comprehensive in scope and can be tailored to meet your needs. You could keep all your account information in one location, schedule jobs, dispatch staff, invoice clients and have customers check on their job status if desired.
How to learn more about using Fleetmatics GPS Tracking
If you are interested in learning more then visit their website at Fleetmatics and discover what they offer. It may be worthwhile if you have a growing fleet you need to track and desire to understand how to make it all work better than it currently does!
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Do you supply vehicles to your employees or do they use their own?
Hi Shannon! I’ve done a variety of different setups over the years. Sometimes people used their own vehicles, but generally I supplied the trucks / vans. Many jobs that is required because you need commercial vehicle insurance in order to even acquire the big accounts.
Commercial vehicle insurance to aquire the big jobs? Not necessary if they are driving their own vehicles correct? Like me driving to my current full-time job?
Every job is different. I’m talking BIG jobs. Ones that tell you up front what amount of insurance is needed.
Why would you need to provide vehicles to employees for janitorial cleaning? If you do this for your carpet cleaning business, I understand. You need it to carry the equipment. I know maid services will provide maids cars to go from account to account because they may services 4 or 5 homes per day. But it is my understanding that for Janitorial, an employee only services one account per night, maybe two and the equipment is usually kept on site.
Hi Jim!
I would have teams of people going out to service an entire section of town. Two people per truck going out (sometimes more, but usually two). One was a lead, the other the assistant. They may clean just one or two accounts, or they may clean six or eight smaller ones per night (or day for that matter). It just depended on how the jobs fell. They may do 2 commercial cleanings then do a big window cleaning job. It all depended on what work came in.
Lots of benefits for this approach. When one calls out, you still have the other partner to do the work. When you rely on just one person, and that person calls out or quits, that leaves a hole in the schedule that needs to be filled (normally by the business owner).
Another benefit is that partners who worked together wouldn’t stiff the other by calling out (once they became friends). Plus you have the benefits of trusted people with experience training others the right way to do things (you are cloning yourself in a sense). Keep in mind, some people don’t have a license either, so why exclude them if they are good workers?
You also have some jobs that are simply too big to be done by one person. Then you also have the benefit of cross training, meaning you could always switch up the crews to teach people how to clean other accounts. Lastly some jobs required commercial vehicle insurance (big construction cleanup type work for example), and the crews had to arrive in those vehicles to be compliant.
I guess you have to be at a certain level to do this. And I would assume they are full time employees.
A certain level… nope. As soon as I could afford the truck, I got people to do the jobs. That freed me up to do more marketing, and get even more jobs. I just kept repeating that process really. And “yes and no” on the full time staff. I did have some full time workers during the day, and one crew full time at night, but the vast majority was part timers.
I found part timers to be the best bet. I sought out folks who were looking for 3 to 5 hours per night. I liked having the trucks back by 10pm if possible. I already worked from 7 am for first shift, so I didn’t want to go 24 hours a day! I actually turned down overnight work because of that. Too much stress.
What is the cost of fleetmatics?
It sounds expensive
Hi Randy! Depends on what you want. They create a package based upon what you need / want. If you call Taylor, she can fill you in on the details (there is so much they offer, I didn’t even touch on it all in the post).