Customer Profile

Web Service Company manages more than 30,000 laundry rooms in apartment properties, condos, dorms and military bases in the Western United States. Such an operation requires the management of a large number of mobile workers and vehicles. To do this, the company uses a sophisticated on-demand Mobile Resource Management (MRM) solution from @Road called @Road GeoManager iLM.

Web Service Company relies on @Road to help the company reduce costs associated with servicing laundry equipment in apartment, condominium and university facilities throughout California, Nevada and Hawaii. The GeoManager iLM solution includes a Web-based software application combined with the @Road iLM (Internet Location Manager) device, which is installed in Web Service Company’s nearly 300 field vehicles. This MRM solution gives Web Service Company managers improved visibility into the locations of their mobile workers and their vehicles.

According to Chris Hannum, regional vice president of operations for Web Service Company, @Road helps the company identify and correct routing inefficiencies, save on fuel costs, and improve vehicle and employee safety.

“Our deployment of @Road has paid for itself. In turn, we’ve been able to parlay these savings into new technologies and customer service programs to further improve customer satisfaction. The implementation of this program has proven to be a win-win for both our company and our customers,” Hannum said.

The @Road solution works by having the @Road iLM device deliver data to the easy-to-use, Web-based GeoManager application, which shows managers the real-time locations of their fleet. Managers can, for instance, view customizable maps showing vehicle routes and direction of travel, receive alerts when vehicles are approaching customer sites or other preprogrammed landmarks, or be informed when a vehicle is operating outside of a pre-approved travel area—all on demand. Web Service Company has also used @Road to help recover two stolen vehicles.

Web Service Company Branch Manager Rick Reeves said he uses @Road to receive alerts if a vehicle is speeding, idling too long or operating at an unauthorized time or location.

“I can’t personally be on every service call, but @Road gives me the peace of mind that our employees are safe and our routes are operating efficiently,” Reeves said. “When occasional problems arise, I simply call the driver to find out what’s going on. In the long run, the time and money saved is good for our employees, the company and our customers.”

Hannum added that @Road—together with @Road software partner TransDecisions—reduces overall company fuel costs and eliminates route hours by correcting overlapping or inefficient routes.

“Before implementing @Road and TransDecisions, our routes were zip code based and at times we could end up with workers at sites across the street from each other. Since the implementation of these advanced routing tools, we have all but eliminated our routing inefficiencies. This has translated into an increase in our daily production as well as a decrease in average miles driven. Although gas prices have been on the rise, we’ve been able to keep our fleet fueling costs relatively flat,” Hannum said.

View additional stories from @Road GPS Fleet Tracking Customers.