Whitton Companies is a residential home construction company located in Phoenix, AZ, specializing in plumbing, concrete, and framing. They started researching GPS tracking to obtain a more efficient method of dispatching vehicles to customer sites. Before they had a solution in place, their main office would receive a call from a customer requesting a service, manually look up their address online, and print out a map to navigate their driver to the customer site. “We wanted to find a solution that would help our service department direct drivers to homes quickly and efficiently,” said Matt Nielsen, Whitton Companies.
Whitton Companies also considered GPS tracking was to gain oversight of field supervisors during the workday. Without real-time vehicle location data, managers at the office were unable to confirm if field supervisors were on the job site when they were supposed to be. “Our managers needed the ability to see where field supervisors were at any given time,” said Nielsen.
Along with solving these challenges, Whitton Companies needed a platform that could integrate with their enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that they use to manage all data throughout their organization.
How it was solved
Since implementing GPS Insight’s Vehicle & Asset Tracking Solution, Whitton Companies has increased dispatch efficiency. They use the system to ensure drivers arrive at customer sites as quickly as possible by sending routes straight to drivers, including turn-by-turn directions.
GPS Insight makes it possible for Whitton Companies to monitor their field employees throughout the workday. “We set up landmarks around customer sites and other unauthorized locations,” said Nielsen, “if an employee’s vehicle spends a certain amount of time in a landmark other than the customer site, we are notified by an alert and are able to identify if they are off task.”
Whitton Companies has also been able to utilize GPS Insight’s integration capability to send GPS tracking data straight to their internal ERP software. “Finding a GPS tracking solution with quality API integration was critical,” said Nielsen, “many other providers we spoke with were claiming to offer API’s for the data we needed, but actually did not.” They use this integration to audit timecard accuracy, “Most employees use electronic timecards that integrate straight into our payroll system, but some employees bring their vehicles home and don’t punch in and out, which made it difficult to ensure payroll accuracy,” said Nielsen.
By importing GPS Insight’s beginning and end of day report into their payroll system, Whitton Companies’ accounting department can determine payroll discrepancies for all employees at the click of a button and fix them right away. “Some cases were blatant and others were just 10 to 15 minutes off billable time reported, but it really adds up over time,” said Nielsen. Since Whitton Companies’ began utilizing GPS Insight’s data to correct payroll discrepancies, they report saving at least $100,000 per year in labor costs alone.
Construction GPS tracking can help businesses, like yours, reduce costs, reduce risk, and increase revenue. Contact GPS Insight to learn more about how GPS tracking will help your business receive true fleet intelligence.
