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/4^th, 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.

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