In January of 2006, we installed the Discrete Wireless GPS fleet tracking unit in every vehicle. Here are some of the benefits that we are experiencing:

• We get reports automatically e-mailed (daily, weekly, monthly) that show what time a vehicle started up and every stop made during the day.
• We can get data downloaded into a CSV or Excel file and easily analyze routes takes, miles driven and personal use of vehicles
• E-mails are automatically (in real time) sent to supervisory personnel if a vehicle is speeding, excessively idling, starts up after hours or leaves the metropolitan area.

Since we implemented the GPS fleet management system, we have realized significant benefits already, including:

• The number of "Safety First" complaints (from the 800 number on the back of each vehicle) has decreased about 40%
• Speeding has dropped dramatically
• Vehicle sharing has been far easier since we know where the closest vehicle is at any time.
• Tracking mileage is allowing us to bring vehicles into the mechanic when mileage dictates (just-in-time) rather than a using a scheduling guestimate.

The bottom line is that vehicles are being used more effectively, personal usage is minimal, drivers are more conscientious, consumers and employees are safer, support staff are more productive and expenses are lowered. We expect a meaningful drop in our insurance premiums due to this change. We expect to recover the costs of the system in the first year.

Marc Center, Inc.

Imagine operating a labor-intensive service business where you had no idea how much time your employees spent at any given account. Imagine being unable to accurately determine operational costs until 30, 60 and even, 90 days after they occurred. The old adage, “It’s like driving a car by looking in the rear view mirror” comes to mind. Yet, this is how our business operated for over 10 years before installing our global positioning system by Time Management in October 2005.

With our GPS, we have begun to track and document important data that is already helping us to make changes. For example, we are now able to determine the profitability of EACH account, which in turn has allowed us to make objective pricing adjustment decisions. We have also been able to capitalize on more efficient route structures, which is paying dividends in light of the current high fuel costs. In addition, employee oversight has improved with vehicle speed and location monitoring capabilities.

In summary, I believe that our GPS has given us a competitive advantage. I am anxious to get more data to evaluate seasonal and year-to-year differences.

Paramount Landscape

Cavco Homes is the largest builder of manufactured homes and has been in business for almost 40 years. Having a fleet of over 30 service vehicles has always presented several management challenges for our warranty service department. Tracking proper usage of the vehicles was difficult at best due to the fact that most of the fleet is spread over 3 states at any one time. Some of the “gray” areas we wanted to clarify were:

• Are the service techs where they are supposed to be when they are supposed to be there?
• Are the vehicles being used for personal errands or for side jobs on weekends?
• Do the time sheets turned in by the techs match their actual start and stop times?
• How fast are the vehicles being driven?
• How do we know if regular maintenance is being performed on the vehicles?
• How much actual time is being spent at the customer’s house?
• How many miles per day, week or month are they averaging?

By incorporating the Discrete Wireless GPS system into our fleet, we feel that we have gained valuable and measurable knowledge regarding the questions we had. A couple of valuable stats we have been able to compile in just the 2 months the systems have been installed in one-third of our fleet are:

The GPS units were installed at the beginning of March 2006.

• In California alone, the number of completed work orders went from 198 during January and February, to 241 for March and April, a 21% increase!
• The number of hours per week averaged 1757 for January and 1765 for February. After GPS, The number of hours per week averaged 1641 for March and 1656 for April, nearly 100 hours less.
• The average number of miles driven per week has dropped by approximately 1000 from March to April. (This saves us approximately 10 gallons a gas per week per truck.

The peace of mind of just knowing where our vehicles are and have been greatly enhances our confidence that we have control over these “gray” areas. We have no doubt the savings in just these few stats alone will far outweigh the cost of the system.

Cavco Homes

Team Communications builds and maintains cellular tower sites in 15 western states. Our clients include virtually all the major cellular providers. We send crews to sites to construct and repair towers. These crews work very much on their own, often in remote locations. Our company motto is “Do it once. Do it right the first time.” Hence our standards are high (our customers demand that and we have to provide it). So we wanted a GPS system that would meet our standards.

Why We Needed a GPS System: Our management team became concerned about the significant overtime being submitted by our crews. Often our clients need to get their towers operational and begin or reestablish their revenue stream from cellular traffic. Our crews do put in long hours, including driving to the various sites. Like many businesses our payroll is one of our most significant costs and prudent management dictates that we control costs where possible.

Being on their own in remote locations resulted in our crews manually submitting their time. In most cases we believed that the time was reasonable but in some cases the hours submitted appeared inflated.

The Results: The Discrete Wireless system was ordered and was installed on our vehicles in California and Arizona over a single weekend. We were impressed by the orderliness of the process.

Once we were in receipt of the reports from the Discrete Wireless system and our payroll we were able to easily spot inconsistencies. We were able to pare back quite a few “extra” hours that had been submitted. The detail of the reports is really outstanding. We can see when each vehicle started in the morning, when it reached a site, when it left a site and when it returned to the motel or to the home of the driver. Every stop is detailed as to the location and duration of the stop. This is especially helpful in documenting hours worked on time and material jobs. The reports clearly indicate how long we were on a given site. No questions can be raised.

Extrapolating from that first payroll and the costs that we were able to reduce, we believe the system is one of the best investments in equipment that we have ever made.

An ancillary and unexpected benefit was that our drivers could call in if they are having trouble finding a site. Our Project Management people can see on their computer monitor exactly where the vehicle is and direct the crew to the site. When a tower goes down and we get the call we can determine which crew is the closest and direct them to the site for the needed repair. Our customers are impressed by our timely responses.

In addition to the cost savings and the accuracy of our payroll we get reports when our vehicles exceed the speed limit or whatever speed level we care to use as the point at which we are notified. Knowing that they will get a phone call if they speed our employees drive in a more responsible manner. There is great peace of mind in knowing we are operating in as safe a manner as possible.

Recommendation: Team Communications is very pleased with the system and the people with whom we have dealt. The installation went very smoothly and the reports are clear, accurate and useful. Conflict over what hours were worked has simply ended, safety enhanced and cost savings obtained. What more could we ask for? We unhesitatingly recommend this for any company with vehicles in the field.

Team Communications

Our Time Management system has helped us:

• Reduced fuel consumption and unnecessary mileage on vehicles by eliminating unauthorized use, unnecessary side trips and stops.
• Confirm actual time their technicians spent at each job which has proven to be a benefit to the company and the customer. Better customer service!
• Dramatically reduced unnecessary idle time. (Each 1-hour of unnecessary idle time represents an average of 2 gallons of gas consumption and 2 hour of engine use.) Therefore, this has resulted in lower operating expenses by less fuel consumption and less unnecessary wear and tear on the trucks engines.

AccuTemp Refrigeration, Inc.

As a part of my surveying/engineering business I run up to 10 survey crews in trucks every day. These crews are out in the field on projects, out of our sight, all over the valley. Since adding Guardian GPS tracking to our company a couple of years ago we have been able to monitor the movements and scheduled of our crews on a continuous basis. We have been able to eliminate inefficient crew assignments and to improve service to our clients. This has resulted in better utilization of crews and increased our client satisfaction and improved our bottom line.

Brooks Engineers & Surveyors, Inc.