"I wouldn't go back to working without Navman Wireless. It is definitely a tool to be used in today's economic climate. It's worth the investment if you can solve one problem per month."
Benefits of Navman Wireless
- $1600 per month in savings by eliminating customers quering invoice amount
- Increased efïficency and time savings
- Able to locate entire fleet instantly
- Fuel savings
Morrinsville Plumbing provides plumbing, gasfitting, and drainage services to residential, commercial and industrial customers in the Waikato. When Dave Strong and his two business partners bought the business in 1992 the company employed just four staff. Now it has 16 people, 14 vans and two trucks.
Dave is deputy chair of the Master Plumbers Association. When he started looking for a reliable and efïficent tracking solution for his business he asked around his colleagues in the industry, the majority of whom used and recommended Navman Wireless.
In March 2010 Morrinsville Plumbing installed Navman Wireless in every vehicle in the business - even the company directors' cars.
"We didn't want anyone to think they were being treated differently," says Dave.
Saving of $1600 pm in lost revenue from discounting
The most signficant benefit for Morrinsville Plumbing has been in resolving travel time and time on site queries from residential customers.
"We service a semi-rural and rural community which mean our guys can travel 35-40km to get to a customer, so we charge for time and distance travelled. Before we installed Navman Wireless, if a customer queried an invoice it was their word against ours. We would usually discount the disputed amount to keep the customer happy," says Dave. "We still get queries but we're able to show distance travelled, what time we arrived on site and how long we were there. Now we have proof that the amount we're charging them is correct. It gives our customers peace of mind."
Previously Dave had been discounting an average of two-three hours per worker per month. With 12 workers on the road that adds up to around $1600 per month in lost revenue.
"If I can recover one and a half hours per month it covers the cost of Navman Wireless for each vehicle."
Daily trip reports used for job sheets
Dave gets trip reports for each vehicle emailed to him automatically.
"I print these out for each vehicle every morning. The guys check these against their time sheets and sometimes we pick up small jobs that we didn't have job sheets for in advance. It means we capture all those small jobs and are able to charge for them."
The office manager and office clerk have Navman Wireless OnlineAVL2 on their screens at all times. They can see at a glance where everyone is, saving time and numerous phone calls. They use it to allocate jobs, confirming with the managing director or foreman before sending the most appropriate person.
"We've always prided ourselves on our customer services. Our customers probably don't even know that we use Navman Wireless but it makes us even more efïficent in getting someone to a job."
Additional savings
The company has also seen an indirect saving on its fuel bill. "As the vehicles are tracked, everyone is now more aware of the travel distance and time and are being a bit more thoughtful about the vehicle use."
The team uses Navman Wireless every day. "It hasn't changed what they do, but it does help with the accuracy of timesheets and mileage charges. And it saves us time, we don't have to go back and calculate mileage if someone forgets to track it at the time of a job."
"Navman Wireless does everything I want it to do, making it value for money to the company and ultimately the profit margin."
