iTRAK News - September 2008

Customer Spotlight – Residential Elevators

“Managing your fleet in a 'black hole' is nearly impossible,” says Chip Boeneke, Chief Information Officer for Residential Elevators, Inc. (REI) in Tallahassee, Florida. In the past, REI relied on human input to keep track of dozens of trucks traveling from coast to coast. Looking to improve efficiency and reduce unwarranted expenses, REI installed iTRAK units in its nationwide fleet of 70+ delivery and service trucks. “Coordination of our shipments, installers, and service technicians is critical for running our day-to-day operations. To think that a single product could make such a difference is amazing. With the help of iTRAK Fleet Manager, REI has become a much more productive company,” claims Boeneke.

Since deploying iTRAK in July 2007, REI has been able to completely eliminate personal, after-hours, and weekend use of company vehicles. With fuel prices at nearly $4.00 per gallon, REI has recognized upwards of $10,000 a month in operational savings alone, not to mention the reduction in maintenance costs.

With an ever changing landscape in today’s home building market, iTRAK has also helped REI adapt quickly to customer needs. When a customer calls for service, dispatchers can quickly find the closest technician and re-route him in seconds. Knowing the location and status of every driver, REI has saved thousands of dollars on unnecessary travel, at the same time improving customer satisfaction.

REI management has documented the following improvements in their bottom line as a result of using iTRAK Fleet Manager.

• Reduced consumption of fuel by:
  • Managing service and installation crews more efficiently
  • Cutting out unnecessary use of many vehicles
• Reduced vehicle insurance over the past six months by:
  • Cutting down on speeding violations
  • Monitoring after-hours usage violators
  • Reducing excessive wear and tear on vehicles
• Reduced cost of payroll by:
  • Using landmark and stops reporting
  • Using the automated alert module
• Reduced management hours by:
  • Giving each manager time and location of every vehicle
  • Providing user-friendly reporting for each vehicle

REI prides itself on being the technology leader in its market with both products and services. “The addition of iTRAK has given us one more technological edge over the competition,” says Boeneke. “iTRAK has totally changed the way REI does business. iTRAK Fleet Manager has become an essential tool for us to manage an ever-growing fleet.”

Product Highlight – Fleetfinder™

“The FleetFinder™ application is by far the most powerful new fleet management tool I have seen in long time,” said Vince Smith of H&K Towing in Schenectady, New York. Dispatchers and managers routinely reap the benefits of iTRAK Fleet Manager by logging in from a desktop PC, yet supervisors in the field often need to know the location of a vehicle. Calling the dispatcher to ask where a vehicle is located would be inefficient and time consuming. To meet this specific need, iTRAK Corporation created the FleetFinder application for PDA and Smartphone devices.

With FleetFinder, field personnel can see a list of vehicles in the fleet, and choose what information to display about any vehicle. Choices include a directional icon on a full-screen interactive map; an information window showing text-based location, time, and speed; or a daily summary of position count, stop count, and geofence activity.

"Now our field supervisors can grab their cellular phones, click once or twice, and see exactly where any one of our trucks is located. We can coordinate the arrival of people and equipment much more efficiently and dramatically reduce unproductive idle time,” according to Smith.

The FleetFinder application is available as a free download for iTRAK Fleet Manager customers. Specific versions have been optimized to run on a number of handsets, including BlackBerry® and Windows Mobile® platforms. For a list of compatible handsets or more, contact our customer support team at 1-866-224-8725 or click here for more information.

Technical Tip – Identifying Devices by Names, Aliases, and Icons

Most operations in iTRAK Fleet Manager are intuitive, so users don’t need to be computer experts. Sometimes, though, it is worthwhile to review certain features that may have been covered during initial training, but haven't been used very often. For example, iTRAK Fleet Manager associates both a Name and an Alias with each iTRAK device, and you can display either or both on the map display. You can also change the graphical icon that represents each vehicle on the map display. Although users are not permitted to change the device Names, they may change the Aliases or Icons through the Setup menu.

Names – When your company’s iTRAK Fleet Manager account is created, we normally assign the devices sequential names such as Unit 01, Unit 02, Unit 03, etc. Remember that these are the default names, and you should consider changing them to names that have significance to people who will be using the system. For example, if you traditionally refer to your vehicles as 922, 941, and 960, then you should set these as the Names in iTRAK Fleet Manager as well. You can be even more specific if you want, calling them Heavy 922, Flatbed 941, and Service 960, if that makes more sense to you. Remember that Names are assigned and changed only by our Admin Support team. Once you decide on the best naming convention, send an email to admin.support@itrak.com with the present and proposed names, and they will make it happen!

Aliases – To create or change the Alias, you must access the Setup feature: click on the Vehicles menu, scroll down to the name of the vehicle of interest (let’s say it is called Service 22), slide over to “Setup Service 22” and click. You will be presented with a dialog box containing multiple tabs. After selecting the Name/Alias tab, you will see that the only modifiable field is the New Alias field. In this field you can enter just about any combination of letters and numbers that will help you associate something meaningful with that vehicle. The most common Alias choice is the name of the driver assigned to that vehicle, so feel free to enter Adam, or Eve, etc., and then click the Update Alias button. The Alias you have chosen will be associated with that unit until the next time you change it. Some of our customers use the alias to track a job number, cost center, or the name of a project that the vehicle is working on. Customers who track cellular phones carried by drivers might use the Alias to indicate the vehicle associated with that driver. Remember that you can change the Alias in just a few seconds, so it can keep up with your changing situations.

Icons – Again, enter the Setup dialog box from the Vehicles menu, scroll down to the desired vehicle, slide over to the right to Setup, and click. After selecting the tab called Icon, you will see three scroll bars that allow you to choose the Icon type and two colors. The most common choice for Icon type is the directional arrow (called “RARROW”), since it displays not only position, but direction of travel—an extremely useful bit of knowledge for determining a vehicle’s activity. For both the STAR and the RARROW Icon types, you can select a primary color for the body of the Icon and a secondary color for the spot in the center. (The primary color choice will also indicate the color of the breadcrumb trail.) Once you have selected Icons and colors, click on Update Icon, and your Icon will be changed. Many customers use Icons to indicate different types of vehicles or just to tell one from the next. Remember that when you produce a historical breadcrumb trail for multiple vehicles, you can’t tell them apart unless their trails are different colors!

If you have any questions about Names, Aliases, Icons, or any other functions in the Setup box, don’t hesitate to call our technical support team at 1-866-224-8725 or email them at technical.support@itrak.com.

Who's Who at iTRAK...

Admin Support – This dedicated group based at our headquarters handles a large number of different tasks, including new order processing and acceptance, questions relating to existing orders, new user set-up, fleet and unit changes, billing, and all other administrative issues. Call the admin staff at 1-866-694-8725 or email them at admin.support@itrak.com.

Technical Support – Rich Geving and his team will make sure you derive the maximum benefit from your iTRAK system. They can help with installation questions, answer technical questions, and help performance issues. Live hours are 6:00 AM - 5:00 PM Mountain Time, with on-call technicians available after hours. Call 1-866-224-8725 or email technical.support@itrak.com.

Sales Team – Based in regional offices throughout the U.S., our team of Regional Sales Managers stands ready to set up product demonstrations, provide current pricing, help calculate return on investment to justify your iTRAK purchase, and organize post-sales training. You can reach the sales team by calling 1-866-694-8725, or emailing itrak.sales@itrak.com