Category: Blog

Inventions & Innovations: RFID Asset Tracking to Asset Sensors

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People commonly use the words “inventions” and “innovations”. Most of the times, however, people misuse them. The biggest difference is inventions are new ideas whereas innovations are improvements. Since learning those terms in business school, I saw real-life examples by working in technology. To illustrate, let’s discuss RFID asset tracking and asset sensors.

RFID Asset Tracking – An Invention

RFID asset tracking was an exciting invention. A lot of people don’t know about or appreciate RFID tags because they are extremely small chips. However, many businesses use RFID asset tracking for saving cost or even saving lives.

For example, many hospitals use RFID asset tracking on medical equipment. After hospitals and other organizations experienced success with RFIDs for asset tracking, people started using RFIDs for asset scanning.

RFID Asset Tracking

For example, think about key fobs. I moved apartments when I was younger and one of the biggest differences was the entrance door. Before the move, I used keys to unlock the lobby door. However, after the move, I used key fobs to scan in. At that time, I thought key fobs were as magical as Harry Potter gadgets.

Nowadays, RFIDs are still popular. Nonetheless, a new business trend is Big Data. In other words, businesses want to collect more data to make better decisions. Hence, for some businesses, RFIDs are not enough because they only collect location data. What’s the next big thing?

Asset Sensors – Innovating RFIDs

An emerging technology are asset beacons. Similarly to RFIDs, asset sensors are small sensors. However, the biggest difference is asset sensors collect much more data. To illustrate, consider a recent magazine article on wineries.

Pehlam Estate Winery Plans Better Wines

rfid tracking system

Picture from Crush Summer 2018 & retrieved from www.issuu.com.

Who loves wine? Tasty wine requires careful preparation. For example, consider Pehlam Estate Winery, a multi-generation winery in Ontario. According to their experience, -10°C is the best icewine grape harvesting temperature. Hence, the winery invested in asset sensors for temperature alerts.

After a while, the winery discovered that they can do even more with asset sensors. Matthew Speck, the winery’s Operation Manager, started using climate analytics for predicting growth patterns and for producing better quality wine.

Summary

Inventions and innovations will always happen. Forward-thinking businesses invested in new technology such as RFID asset tags and asset sensors and found new ways of conducting business as a result.

Links
Issuu: Crush Summer 2018 Magazine. Sensing Change.

It’s Easy and Effective to Make Digital Forms

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What do logging into websites, buying stuff online, and completing surveys have in common? All of these actions involve customers filling in online forms. Nowadays, there are hundreds of online forms and there are tons of free tools to help people make digital forms.

Is it hard to build forms?

make a digital forms

Not at all! One of the great things about digital forms is that it’s easy to learn how to make digital forms. For example, when I was in school, a lot of my classmates learned and used SurveyMonkey.

SurveyMonkey is a free online tool where users make and share surveys. It was a great tool for school (and even work!) because it was easy to build a form and it was valuable for collecting research data.

How do you make a killer form?

Tools like SurveyMonkey are just the beginning. Although it’s not hard to make digital forms, it’s important to learn how to do them properly. After all, great forms lead to great results!

building a killer form

The Best Practices of a Killer Form include Organization, Multimedia, and Mobile-Friendliness.

Organization

Forms must be organized. For example, consider Tax Forms. Taxpayers usually confirm their name, address, and other personal info on the first page of their Tax Form because it makes sense to keep similar data together.

Hence, before people start making forms, they should create a form outline. This involves brainstorming data collection objectives and grouping those objectives in a logical order.

Multimedia

Another best practice is including multimedia. Particularly, people are getting away from text-only forms. Most forms in the 2000s era consist of text boxes and checkboxes. In contrast, modern forms include file uploads.

To illustrate, think about driver maintenance forms. In the 2000s, drivers would need to describe vehicle problems in words. However, in modern forms, drivers can take a video with their phone and upload that video onto the form. After all, pictures are worth 1000 words!

Mobile Friendliness

Lastly, forms must be mobile friendly. Mobile friendliness is much more than downsizing a form to fit a phone screen. Instead, mobile friendliness is about taking advantage of phones. For example, a lot of digital phones use e-signatures. Customers can directly sign on a phone rather than signing on paper.

Case Example: AAA

Many businesses choose to make digital forms because it’s an effective way to improve processes. One of those businesses is AAA, one of the largest emergency road services.

Before starting digital forms, drivers manually completed forms. “Manual forms are a lot of work for drivers and for administrators,” commented a driver. “Sometimes, drivers had to turn in damaged forms because it was raining.”

Then, AAA decided to go digital. Digital forms were much more effective. In fact, on average, drivers got to their next jobs 3 minutes quicker. As a whole, this means AAA saved 750 hours every month!

Click here to learn more about making digital forms with ProntoForms. 

GPS Tracking for Small Businesses: What’s Different? What’s Important?

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GPS tracking for small businesses can be very different than GPS tracking for larger companies. Why?

Small businesses operate differently than larger companies. As a result, small business owners experience different challenges than larger companies.

Small businesses vs. large companies – key differences

Small businesses are smaller (duh!). What does that really mean? In the case of GPS tracking for small businesses, smaller business environments lead to different use cases. For instance, small businesses experience tighter employee connections, higher customer service emphasis, and more staff responsibility.

Tighter Employee Environment

Small businesses have smaller team members. In fact, many small businesses employ family members. In turn, staff members are more likely to be aligned towards a team goal. Hence, small businesses usually experience less time theft than bigger companies.

Use case

GPS tracking for small businesses with close employees are more about protecting business than about monitoring staff members. For instance, a business owner who employs family members are less likely to have to watch their team.

However, business owners might use GPS tracking to protect their bottom line. A great example is in the snow plowing business. These businesses use GPS tracking to keep a record of all of their jobs. As a result, if there is ever a dispute, small businesses can use tangible historical data rather than relying on hiring expensive legal staff.

Customers are THAT Much More Important

gps fleet tracking small business

Small businesses naturally have fewer customers than large businesses. In addition, they don’t have as much advertising resources. Hence, small businesses will do everything in their power to delight their current customer base and to spread positive word of mouth.

Use case

Small businesses use GPS tracking to improve customer service. For instance, our client PoppaCorn uses real-time tracking to provide delivery updates to their customers. Real time tracking increases estimate accuracy which in turn increases customer satisfaction.

Employees Wear Many Hats

Small business employees wear multiple hats

Last but not least, small business employees wear many hats. For instance, a small business employee might be responsible for sales, marketing, and customer service. In contrast, larger companies separate those functions into 3 different roles. Hence, small businesses employees are always looking for better time management tools.

Use Case

GPS tracking for small businesses are also used to save time. Many tracking tools provide data and functions that eliminate manual admin work.

A good example is filing fuel tax forms. Normally, a business staff has to keep a record of fuel receipts and odometer readings. On the other hand, vehicle trackers automatically collect that data and generate reports. Hence, employees can spend their time on more important tasks than data entry and reporting.

Conclusion

Vehicle tracking is helpful in small and large businesses. The difference, however, in the nature of business leads to different use cases.

Climate Targets May Result in More Sustainable Fleet Management

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Sustainable fleet management is a forefront industry item because many businesses around the world are going greener. In fact, recently in October 2018, a climate study group advocated that humans need to be greener.

The IPCC & the 1.5 Degree Target

Global warming is a controversial topic. Some people believe that natural cycles caused recent climate change. However, a lot of scientists tend to disagree.

One group of scientists, the IPCC, issued a stark warning about global warming at a UN conference. They explained that humans need to act quickly to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees in the next few decades.

Otherwise, if temperatures continue to climb over 1.5 degrees, scientists warn that there will be irreversible effects. For instance, rising water levels will leave some areas uninhabitable and deadly weather will become more common.

CO2 emissions cut by 45%

In particular, the IPCC noted that governments should aim to cut CO2 emission by 45%. Consequently, a 45% goal can significantly impact heavy fuel users- such as business fleets.

The Case for Sustainable Fleet Management

Nonetheless, many fleets are moving towards sustainable fleet management even without a carbon target. One explanation is taking environmental leadership. However, another reason is reducing business costs.

Multiple studies show that sustainable fleet management leads to business savings. For instance, fleets save directly on fuel costs and indirectly from tax credits.

How do you Implement Sustainable Fleet Management?

After deciding to go green, the next question is often, “How do you do it?”.

Fleets need to work on every area of their operation including purchasing assets, planning operations, and conserving fuel.

Asset Purchasing

The first area is purchasing equipment. Fleets are moving towards fuel efficient ideas such as electric vehicles and solar appliances.

Asset Purchasing

Electric vehicles continue to be a fleet management trend in 2019. The technology is more feasible than ever, and as a result, a lot of fleets are testing the idea to cut fuel costs.

Another alternative is switching to solar appliances. For example, some fleets equip solar panels to power vehicle appliances. According to a study, solar power cuts 3% of fuel during drives and 16% of fuel during idling.

Route Planning

Yet another idea is route planning. Many fleets are combining internal functions into single routes rather than spreading out their trips.

route planning

To illustrate, consider the medical industry. Medical organizations might use vehicles to collect supplies and deliver medical test samples. Rather than sending out two vehicles, businesses are now combining tasks into a single route.

Fuel Conservation

Lastly, fleets are always looking for ways to reduce fuel usage. Some of the traditional ways of reducing fuel include implementing a no-idling policy and monitoring fuel mileage.

In 2018, however, fleets tried new ideas. For example, if you look at trucks on the road, you might notice that some trucks travel in a line. This is on purpose and is called “platooning”. Researchers found that platooned trucks can save up to 10% of fuel, which is a small step towards a 45% target.

Many fleets are adopting sustainable fleet management ideas. It’s a good move for moving green and for saving costs!

Links
United Nations Environment Programme: Rapid and unprecedented action required to stay within 1.5ºC says UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Sustainable Roadmap: Environmental Considerations for Fleet Management

Part 3: Common Useful Reports – Driver Safety Reports

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One of our biggest client request is creating reports. Reports are a useful fleet management tool because they provide snapshots for decision making. For instance, safety managers use driver safety reports to monitor driver safety and train drivers on best practices.

Driver Safety Reports

Safety is a top priority for many fleets because even a single accident can be disastrous. For instance, think about the BP oil spill a few years ago. In this case, an oil rig leaked and caused wide damage. The company paid billions of dollars in fines and saw a consumer backlash in sales.

Similarly, fleet businesses invest heavily into driver safety to prevent accidents. Some of the most common driver safety reports measure include seatbelt violations, Top 5 Speeding Violators, and Top 5 Aggressive Drivers.

Seatbelt Violators

Many people were taught from an early age to wear their seatbelts. Although most people wear seatbelts, there are still a few folks who don’t.

This problem also impacts fleets. Businesses are partly liable for workplace safety so most fleets have seatbelt policies. Fortunately, a lot of these fleets get visibility on seatbelt compliance by using vehicle monitoring tools.

Seatbelt Violators

To illustrate, Geotab uses a Top 5 Seatbelt Violation report to monitor seatbelt compliance. In our example report, the biggest concern is Vehicle 4. As a result of this data, the supervisor knows to follow up with Vehicle 4’s driver on their seatbelt usage.

Top 5 Speeding Report

Another common safety metric is speeding. Speeding is extremely common. For instance, think about the last time you were on the road. How many speeders did you see? Most drivers will answer, “almost everyone on the road!”

Speeding, however, is especially concerning for commercial vehicles. Commercial vehicles are much bigger and heavier than private vehicles. Therefore, commercial vehicle accidents are usually more serious than non-commercial vehicle accidents.

top 5 speeding violations

In response, supervisors use driver safety reports such as Top Speeding Violators. In our sample report, Alex leads the fleet in speeding incidents. As a result, his manager has the data to say something like, “Alex, I noticed that you sped a company-leading 144 times. I expect you to decrease that to X speeding incidents next month.”

Top 5 Aggressive Driving

Is speeding the only aggressive driving habit? No. There are tons of other aggressive driving habits. For instance, in Ontario driving tests, assessors watch aggressive habits such as braking harshly, accelerating harshly, and cutting other drivers.

Harsh braking is a particularly common KPI in modern fleets. Managers found a strong correlation between harsh braking incidents and distracted and fatigued driving incidents.

harh braking driving behaviour

In response, a lot of supervisors are now collecting video driving safety reports. Fleet cameras detect aggressive driving habits and show a footage of the event. As a result, managers can check if the driver was distracted or fatigued.

Did you enjoy our mini-series on useful fleet reports? Click here to watch a video on other common driver safety reports. 

Part 2: Common Useful Reports – Maintenance & Fuel Reports

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One of our biggest client requests is creating reports. Reports are a useful fleet management tool because they provide snapshots for decision making. For instance, fleet managers use maintenance & fuel reports to minimize fleet downtime and fleet fuel expenses.

Maintenance & Fuel Reports

Two of the biggest fleet cost drivers are maintenance and fuel. Maintenance cost includes repair and replacement costs, as well as lost productivity. Fuel costs, on the other hand, are predictable operational costs.

Some of the key maintenance & fuel reports include Engine Light Warnings, Fuel Trends, and Idling.

Engine Light Warning

Engine lights are a vehicle’s first indicator for trouble. For instance, engine lights might indicate that a mechanic needs to inspect a vehicle’s engine or air flow. If left unattended, vehicles can encounter major issues and stop working.

However, the issue with many fleets is that some drivers do not report issues. Fleet vehicles ultimately belong to the business and unfortunately, some drivers ignore engine light warnings because it isn’t their personal vehicle.

engine light warning

A useful report in this case is % Days with Engine Light On. This report measures engine light warnings during a given time period. Therefore, even when drivers are not reporting issues, mechanics will still know which vehicles need further checkup.

Fuel Last 3 Months

Another budget controlling initiative outside of controlling maintenance expenses is reducing fuel expense. Fleet managers are responsible for optimizing fuel costs. As a result, many fleet managers plan and implement strategies such as no-idling rules, driver contests, or fuel replacement.

All of those ideas are great. Nonetheless, the key question for many fleet managers and their performance evaluations is, “are my ideas working?”. This is why fleet managers measure and monitor trend reports. These reports are useful because they paint a long term picture of a fleet.

fleet fuel reports

For instance, here is a fuel report for the last 3 months. Overall, the fleet is experiencing lower fuel costs. However, over the past month, there was a slight increase in fuel expense. This is useful information for the fleet manager. Is there an increase because there is more business? Or, should the policies be re-evaluated?

Idling

Speaking of fuel policies, one of the most common and effective ideas is reducing idling. Unfortunately for many fleets, idling is a major concern. For instance, on my way to work, I noticed at least 3 idling vehicles.

In response, a lot of fleet managers create and monitor a zero idling policy. Idling Reports are a great tool for this objective. To illustrate, view the Idling Report above. Fleet managers can use this report to identify idling patterns and follow up with driver coaching.

Enjoyed our blog on maintenance & fuel reports? Check back with us for our next report set – driver safety!

Part 1: Common Useful Reports – Worker Efficiency Reports

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One of our biggest client request is creating reports. Reports are a useful fleet management tool because they provide snapshots for decision making. For instance, operation planners use worker efficiency reports to plan employee activity and to monitor time usage.

Worker Efficiency Reports

This week’s guide focuses on efficiency. Worker efficiency means producing the most output while minimizing resources. In particular, we’ll split worker efficiency reports into utilization reports, time card reports, and unauthorized usage reports.

Utilization Report

Firstly, we’ll take a look at utilization reports. Utilization reports focuses on vehicles rather than specific employees. In these reports, fleets study a vehicle’s usage rate and if that usage rate is efficient. Why is utilization important?

Utilization is important because businesses can get rid of excessive assets. For instance, most fleets do a “utilization audit” and discover underused vehicles. They can then decide to sell those vehicles, thus cutting down on business costs.

utilization reports

To illustrate, here’s an example of an utilization report. This report is neat because it breaks down fleet vehicles by distance travelled. An operation planner might look at the report and reflect that a lot of vehicles travel less than 100km; it might good time to cut down on fleet size!

Time Card Report

Another efficiency report are time card reports. Supervisors use time card reports to monitor their employees’ job productivity.

In fact, time card reports are probably the #1 need for new vehicle tracking adopters. From my experience, many business owners struggle with employees that start late, leave early, and take long breaks.

time card reports

There are several reports that target inefficient employees. One of our favourites is the Late Arrival Report. To illustrate, Geotab had a contest for some of their employees to see who were early birds and who were late arrivers. In reality, however, Late Arriver Reports were effective in cutting down time fraud and improving customer satisfaction.

Unauthorized Usage

Similarly to time card reports, another useful efficiency report is unauthorized usage reports. Why? A lot of businesses let employees take work vehicles home. This increases the risk of unauthorized use.

For instance, one business owner noticed a company vehicle outside a bar. Rightfully so, the owner questioned if the employee was drinking and driving with the company vehicle. In another case, an employee used work vehicles for personal jobs.

unauthorized usage reports

What can employers do to cut down on unauthorized usage? One way is to track and monitor unauthorized use. In the above example, we can see that several employees broke unauthorized usage rules. This is valuable information because employers can use this as physical evidence against suspected rule breakers.

Enjoyed our blog on worker efficiency reports? Check back with us for our next report set – maintenance and fuel!

Driver Tracking App: Must-Haves

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Last week, we looked at who should and who shouldn’t use driver tracking apps. We concluded that the best candidates were businesses who hired contractors and field employees.

This week, we’ll take a step further. Let’s say we’re one of those businesses. The question then becomes what are the most important things to look for in a driver tracking app. Some essentials include multi-platform, live tracking, rule creation, job management, and on-the-background.

Multi-Platform Apps

One of the most important driver tracking app features is also one of the most basic; the app should be available on both Android and Apple.

A lot of apps are exclusive to a single platform. For instance, some developers take a while or even abandon launching an Apple Store app because of its extensive rules. Apple’s App Store screens apps for things like user safety, usability, and legality.

Live Tracking

Driver Tracking Map

Another essential is getting live tracking. A lot of apps locate and report data but have a slight time delay.

For instance, some apps ping every 15 minutes. This becomes a problem when businesses give inaccurate information. Imagine how a customer would react if they were told a package will arrive in the next few minutes when in reality it’s not due for much longer!

Rule Creation

Speaking of customers, some businesses need to create customer service rules. The most common rule is location zones.

Driver tracking app users should be able to create zones and measure when employees arrive in those zones.

Driver Zones

Besides zone rules, GPS apps can create other useful rules. For instance, some businesses monitor employee safety by measuring speeding rules.

Job Management

Driver Job Management

If businesses need a tracking app, they also most likely manage jobs. A job is any event where an employee visits a customer or performs a service.

In that sense, many businesses are looking for ways to assign and manage jobs. For instance, Mobile Dispatch has a dedicated job assignment screen. Businesses can use this screen to schedule jobs, assign due dates, and measure if staff are meeting the deadline.

On-the-Background

Lastly, apps should run on the background. In other words, these apps launch as soon as a phone turns on. The app continues to run until someone turns off the phone.

This is an essential business function because it facilitates easier management. Some driver tracking apps are ineffective because users need to manually turn it on. Hence, the app fails when employees forget to open the app or deliberately choose to disable the app.

Missed last week’s blog on who should use mobile GPS tracking? Click here to read.

Who Should Use Fleet Tracking Apps (And Who Shouldn’t!)

Posted on | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment on Who Should Use Fleet Tracking Apps (And Who Shouldn’t!)

The GoFleet marketing team recently featured fleet tracking apps in our monthly newsletters. In turn, we had a healthy response from our subscribers. In fact, a lot of people submitted questions such as what businesses should use fleet tracking apps and what should people look for in a mobile GPS tracking program.

For that reason, we are starting a two-part series on fleet tracking apps. This week, we’ll take a look at who should (and who shouldn’t!) use mobile GPS tracking.

Contractor Businesses (Should!)

Track Contractors

Businesses that use contractors are some of the best fleet tracking app users. Why?

Contractor managers face the same challenge in tracking contractor productivity and safety. At the same time, however, contract businesses cannot easily install vehicle trackers. Because contractors drive their personal vehicles, businesses have a hard time installing GPS hardware.

On the other hand, fleet tracking apps fill that gap. Businesses can monitor contractors during business hours, while contractors can turn off tracking during their personal time.

Low Managerial Power (Shouldn’t!)

On the flip side, mobile GPS tracking is not recommended in businesses with low managerial power because the program is harder to manage.

In some cases, employees sabotaged mobile tracking programs by turning off their phone or uninstalling the app.

Unless managers can get employees to cooperate, we recommend using a hardware solution. Hardware solutions are connected directly into work vehicles and are tamper-proof.

Field Employees (Should!)

Track Feild Workers

Field service providers are another good mobile tracker candidate since employees leave their work vehicles for most of the day.

For instance, my friend works as a wildlife conservationist. She only drives in the beginning and end of the day. For the most of the day, she works on the field.

In those cases, phone-based GPS apps are more useful than vehicle-based GPS hardware. Phone apps allow managers to monitor field workers when they are away from the work vehicles.

Heavy Data Users (Shouldn’t!)

Another limitation of mobile GPS tracking is that it collects less data than dedicated GPS hardware.

For instance, basic tracking apps only track phone location. Fleets that need to collect fuel mileage data, maintenance logs, and advanced driving habits are better off using telematics devices.

Those devices connect directly into the vehicle’s computer and collect fleet-level data.

Check out our next article related to fleet tracking apps: Driver Tracking App: Must-Haves

Updating Your Fleet for Marijuana Legalization

Posted on | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment on Updating Your Fleet for Marijuana Legalization

October 17th is an important day for many people. Firstly, on a selfish side, I’m looking forward to October 17th because my beloved Toronto Raptors are opening their season with a new superstar. However, for many other people, October 17th is important because it marks marijuana legalization in Canada.

Marijuana Legalization

Several countries and regions around the world already legalized marijuana. Soon, Canada will too. After years of planning, the Canadian government will legalize marijuana on October 17th across the country.

However, there are some valid concerns around marijuana legalization. For instance, most subject experts agree that cannabis impairs driving and that the law should protect the public against impaired drivers.

Impaired Driving Rules

In response to driving safety concerns, the government outlined several standards. For instance, officers can use oral fluid screening on suspected impaired drivers. Just like drunk drivers, cannabis impaired drivers are subject to penalties including license suspension, fines, and jail time.

In addition, marijuana laws particularly affect fleets. In Ontario, commercial vehicle drivers and road building vehicle operators cannot use cannabis at all while driving.

Should Fleets Update their Policy?

Fleets should absolutely update their policy. A sizeable portion of a fleet’s workforce might use marijuana and it’s up to the fleet to control cannabis on the job. After all, fleet managers are responsible for improving safety and reducing fines.

Some examples of strategies include fleet education, impairment detection tools, and random drug testing.

Fleet Education

In our option, fleet education is the most effective way to control marijuana. Similar to a drunk driving policy, fleets should take a firm stance against impaired driving and communicate their stance.

How can fleets educate their drivers? In the past, fleets created employee contracts about cannabis, scheduled regular meetings about drug use, and enforced a zero-tolerance policy against drivers.

Impairment Detection Tools

Another option is using impairment detection tools. For instance, programmers created phone apps that monitor driver impairment. To illustrate, we took a look at Fit4Delay. Fit4Delay uses a 60-90 second cognitive test to identify distracted drivers.

Although impairment detection tools discourage “weeding and driving”, it should not be the only tool. Light cannabis users might pass an app test but get fined by police officers because commercial vehicle drivers are not supposed to use any marijuana.

Random Drug Testing

Finally, some fleets use random drug testing. While this approach might catch and deter impaired drivers, it’s not the most recommended strategy.

Random drug testing is highly controversial and is even illegal in some areas. At worst, fleets that use random drug testing can get sued by employees.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on any fleet strategies in our comment section!

Links
Government of Ontario: Cannabis Legalization
Fit4Duty