GPS Tracking for Businesses
Sprint Nextel is the undisputed leader in GPS tracking for mobile phones. This advantage has come from building on Java based phones, a dedicated network for these types of applications, and a leadership in supporting vendors through the Sprint sales channels.
GPS tracking is a real technological advance for field service operations or those looking to check up on family members. Tracking does have a negative connotation, but if you were paying someone $15-$60/hour away from the office to do work for you, as employer, you have the right to ensure the work gets done productively. Nobody ever complains about coming to the office and having the boss walk by your desk or hovering around making sure work gets done. So, this right to “privacy” is already given by the employee to the supervisor in almost all office jobs and this is just moving to field service positions. Nothing new here, just perception or loss of freedom or leisure by employees not pulling their weight for their money.
GPS tracking can do a few things for you.
1. Save money by more accurately tracking time of employees on the job or providing incentives. Now that the employer can accurately track a delivery or job, they can base incentive systems on producing more work. Many of the best employers have paid bonuses on exceed job delivery expectations based on verified data from GPS tracking systems.
2. Reduce costs of accidents and insurance by having information to be proactive about reckless driving. The GPS system can tell if you are moving 45mph in a 25 mile speed limit road. Employers or parents can be proactive to prevent accidents rather than reactive to the accident.
3. Increase accuracy of paperwork and easy processing to timesheets and job cost sheets. Electronic data entry on the phones for job times and job codes can help employers get much more timely and more accurate data on billing and costing. This is vital information to reducing future costs and making improvments and compensating the best employees.
4. Eliminating or reducing theft is also a large driver. In the construction or service trades, there is a lot of unaccounted for inventory floating around or shrinkage in the field. A GPS system can ensure they are not using company vehicles for theft or making unassigned movements in company vehicles. A customer of ours arrested an employee for stealing lumber and going out to do their own jobs. The employee would not report the work and take all the profits under the company’s name. It worked in the past, but now with GPS systems, the employer doesn’t have to lose money and gain liability for entrepreneurial employees.
A flavor of these four major themes of cost reduction, prevention, security, and streamlining operations comes into every decision to making a GPS deployment decision. These items add up to hundreds or thousands of dollars per employee per year.