News From FleetBoss
|
January 2010
|
|
 Welcome to FleetBoss
Dear Customers and Friends,
Here's Your Free
Copy of the
FleetBoss
Report!
This
newsletter is designed to give you access to FleetBoss'
industry-leading knowledge and expertise in fleet management solutions. (We
welcome any success stories or comments you might wish to share about
fleet management or GPS solutions)
|
|
|
|
Tapping into FaceBook
|
First off, if you have not yet heard of Facebook, thanks for exiting
your cave. I'd like to heartily welcome you to the Internet. I think
you'll like it here. :)
But seriously, here are some quick stats on Facebook which should be of interest to businesses:
1. More than 53 million active users
2. An average of 250,000 new users join every day.
3. About 34% of users work as professionals, sales, executives, educators or are in technical careers. 4. The fastest growing demographic on Facebook consists of users 25 and older. Though
Facebook started in the student demographic, it's quickly growing out
of it. So, my guess is that if you have a product or service offering,
chances are that at least a few of those 53 million active users (which
spend about 20 minutes a day on the site) are prospective customers of
your business. The question is, what do you do about it?
Until
recently, only big businesses with big marketing budgets could setup a
Facebook account for their companies and/or brands. Examples included
Verizon, Walmart, Victoria's Secret and other well known companies. For
these brands, Facebook users could become "fans" by adding the brand as
a friend (much like they would add a person as a friend). This was
pretty cool, but pretty expensive for those companies that wanted to
tap into this feature.
Now, any business can create a Facebook
profile, or business page, which any Facebook user can become a "fan"
of. You no longer have to be a Fortune 500 company to afford this. It's
free. Here's how to do it:
Creating A Facebook Business Page
1. Visit this URL: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
2. Decide what the best category is for your business. (Spend a couple of minutes on this as you can't change it later easily).
3. Enter your business/product/brand name and click "Create Page".
4.
At a minimum, I'd suggest entering a short description of your business
and a website address. This is in the "Add Information To This Page"
area. I'd also advise uploading your logo as a photo/image.
5.
Click on your business name in the top left corner (it's a hyperlink)
and then click "publish this page" (until you do this, nobody but you
will be able to see your new Facebook business profile).
6.
Finally, and this is important, from your new profile page, click "Add
to my products". This way, you become the first "fan" of your business.
Now
comes the fun part. Once you've become a "fan" of your business, your
friends on Facebook (some of which are likely customers) will see a
message in their home page. Something like "John Doe is a fan of FleetBosst". Hopefuly, some of your Facebook friends will befriend your
business. Then, their friends will see a message, and so it goes.. |
|
GPS
Uses Not In the Book - That Work!
While "finding your guy" may be the most direct use for a
GPS fleet management system, consider the following tip, strategies and tactics
submitted by FleetBoss users across the United States:
·
A western US city installed a simple "button" on
the dashboard of their street and sanitation vehicles. An input/event was
triggered every time the button was pushed as the driver navigated the city's
streets. Later, a map was printed out with a "dot" located on each area the
button was pushed and given to another team. "Start plugging!" they said. The
map contained every location of the city's potholes.
·
Ernie, a St. Louis delivery manager, suspected
foul play when a box truck produced an unusually high gas bill one month. "It
was almost $75.00 more..." Ernie exclaimed "with the economy this tight I knew
something was funny." Ernie edited every gasoline service station the vehicle
visited into landmarked zones. "By calling the gas station a name...like Exxon
Main/4th, I can then run a report seeing when any vehicle gassed
(sic) up." Ernie then solved the problem. "When I compared the landmark report
to my gas invoices, I noticed gas stations where the credit card was used when the
vehicle was never there...turns out his friend was using my credit card too when
I confronted the driver."
·
A Boston appliance company, a FleetBoss user, found
a unique way to control speeding and idling policies. "We've got automatic
paging alerts set up on the vehicles for speeds and idle..." stated VP of
Operations James Thompson, "...instead of the alert going to the manager, I'm
sending it immediately to the driver with a text message 'slow down!' or 'turn
the motor off!' The drivers think we're watching their every move when it's
automatic. Later, I'll pull the report and review it with the driver on the
next one-on-one. My fuel bill's gone down ever since we set the FleetBoss
system this way."
·
A Seattle HVAC company wired the side door to
their service van with a sensor to measure when tools are accessed. A
newly-hired rookie technician was clocking unusually long service times on
residential jobs. When the sensor report was run, the manager discovered an astonishing
average of eight door openings per stop.
When the rookie was approached as to why, it turns out he was accessing
his tools one at a time on separate trips out to the van which subsequently
added ten minutes per stop per day. After a bit of simple training, the
employee's productivity magically increased when all the tools were brought in at
the same time.
·
A Central Florida electrical contractor turned
the tables on police detectives when the driver was accused of stealing stereo
equipment during a pool-wiring service call when the owners weren't home. "My
driver was accused of stealing the stuff because they saw our van in the
driveway..." claims owner Ted, "...we ran a stop report for the vehicle and it
turns out we were never around the house when the theft took place." It was
later discovered that the company hired to put the stereo in came back and
stole it later after unlocking a window. All charges against the electrical
company were dismissed.
|
GPS In The News
|
Tracking Systems Helping People With Serious Illness
Tracking systems can help people with serious health issues. This is
done using a lone worker tracking solution such as the Skyguard 500. The
person will keep the tracking device about their person. If they are
alone and they fall ill ...
New Program in Bryan Makes Truant Students Carry a GPS Device
In fact, Tuesday morning the first group of
Bryan truants will be given hand-held GPS tracking monitors and will
receive one-on-one coaching to get them ...
District attorney advocates tracking parolees by GPS
GPS tracking
would give officials another way to restrict sex offenders if Allegheny County
loses its legal battle with the American Civil Liberties Union ...
Can Father's Love and GPS Find Missing Baby Gabriel Johnson?
He says he will try to recreate the GPS directions
he believes Johnson followed from Tempe to San Antonio and plans to stop at
hotels along the route ...
|
Tech Corner
|
Q. How can I learn if our vehicle devices are
operating correctly?
A. Fleetboss strongly suggests running a daily
report showing your vehicles activities.
This daily procedure will help limit the frustration you may receive while
reviewing a report that requires your immediate attention only to find no data,
Each system we offer has reports
to help identify potential vehicle device issues.
Learning to use all your reporting
capabilities will not only provide you insight into the productivity and
efficiency of your fleet, but also the health of it.
If you would like to know more
about your system please, contact dan@fleetboss.com
and schedule a Fleetboss
University training
session.
Floyd Honeycutt
Vice President of Operations
| |
|
|
|
$1 00 Credit
Got a FleetBoss Fable? - Any extreme,
successful, unusual yet effective use of your FleetBoss system? Send it to dan@fleetboss.com. If we use your story,
you'll score a $100 credit.
|
Offer Expires: March 1, 2010
|
|
|
|