Manager: Jerry Herrington
Title: Fleet supervisor
Fleet: Coast Plumbing, Heating & Air Inc., Santa Ana, CA
Operation: Light-duty fleet of 28 units radio-dispatched to provide plumbing and HVAC services throughout Orange County, CA
PROBLEM
Vehicle downtime is anathema to Coast Plumbing, Heating & Air, Inc., a Santa Ana, CA-based firm providing plumbing and HVAC repair services.
Coast competes with both large national chains and smaller local operations to serve homes of all sorts throughout Southern California's Orange County.
“Response time is critical in this industry,” says Jerry Herrington.
Indeed the firm, promotes itself to homeowners and apartment complexes alike as an efficient, reliable service provider. On its website, Coast promises efficient service from a courteous professional at affordable prices.
“Since 1986, Coast Plumbing has been leading the pack of plumbing, heating, and air conditioning companies in Orange County,” the company states.
According to Herrington, besides working to keep its fleet of 28 full-size vans and pickups from incurring breakdowns, Coast seeks to route its vehicles as efficiently as possible — and ensure its driver-technicians operate safely on the road as well as at the job.
SOLUTION
Herrington reports that Coast has had great success reducing vehicle downtime — and a few other things, namely inefficient routing, high fuel costs and excessive driver speeding — by implementing Networkcar's Networkfleet solution.
The Networkfleet system reports engine performance and truck location data, giving the fleet access to diagnostic information as well as vehicle speed reports, idle time data and fuel efficiency trends to help manage its vehicles and drivers.
Coast installed systems on all its service trucks this March, simply intending to better track their vehicles. But, says Herrington, the company realized other benefits as well.
He says Coast uses Networkfleet to access remote diagnostics from its trucks, including real-time mileage, idle time and MPG data. This has allowed them to slash unauthorized driving and speeding, reduce idling and compare MPG to fuel card purchases.
“We have saved over 20% in fuel costs by reducing unauthorized mileage in the first two months of using the system,” he adds.
A Chevrolet dealership in Costa Mesa, CA services Coast's fleet. Dealership technicians can log directly into Coast's Networkcar website and determine which vehicles have trouble codes, recalls or decreased fuel efficiency.
This real-time information allows the service department to procure parts in advance and pinpoint problems remotely.
“Our service provider knows exactly when our vehicles are due for scheduled maintenance and they let us know which vehicles to bring in. They can spot vehicle problems at an early stage which helps us maximize our warranties,” says Herrington.
“By repairing problems immediately,” Herrington continues, “we also reduce long-term repair costs. Networkfleet helps us keep our vehicles in top condition so we rarely run into a situation where we don't have the fleet assets we need to meet our workload.
“It is truly amazing,” Herrington adds, “the system paid for itself within the first month.”
Maintenance Bay presents case studies detailing how fleets resolve maintenance-related issues.
