06/30/2005

Collin WORL: You are listening to the GPS Fleet Solutions radio show on 660 WORL, Orlando. My name is Collin Grady. Thanks for joining us today. Joining me is Eron Iler, president of GPS Fleet Solutions. How's it going Eron?

Eron GPSFS: Doing super, glad to be here.

Collin WORL: Excellent. All right, people say the letters GPS, and immediately what comes to mind?

Eron GPSFS: People think about handheld GPS, or GPS for their boats, but really today GPS has become a product for businesses to keep up with their fleet of vehicles. The two most expensive resources in any organization are the people and the vehicles and right now, without GPS technology those resources are unsupervised 95% of the time.

Collin WORL: Now following a vehicle around, this is something that has come a long way. to me it sounds expensive. It sounds like few people are going to have this. Is this something that has finally become affordable for the small business owner?

Eron GPSFS: Absolutely. Five years ago, when GPS first hit the market you might have looked at price tags of $2,500, now you can get a lot of systems for well under $500. In the old days, it used to be a tacograph, which was the old technology right before GPS technology, which actually had a little card that rotated around and had a little ink stick which scratched the card. Obviously, that has gone by the wayside. GPS technology is here, and GPS technology gives a lot more information to the business owner about where the vehicle has been, where it stopped, how long it was there, maybe engine idle time, how fast it drove. Just a whole variety of different aspects that are going to impact an organization.

Collin WORL: All right, what if I own a business, and I don't think I need to know where my guys are "All the time". I don't need to throw a ton of cash out there to know that the guy sat at 7-11 from 15 past to 18 past.

Eron GPSFS: Right

Collin WORL: Is that all GPS really is? Or are there more options?

Eron GPSFS: Well there's certainly a lot more options, and GPS Fleet Solutions has been doing vehicle tracking for about five years. We've been supplying vehicle tracking technology to service and delivery companies as well as government agencies for quite some time, and I personally have experience in the service business which is kind of unique because I know what the customers are thinking about. "How do I control my fleet expenses and how do I improve my customer service? How do I make sure my vehicles are delivering on time service and things of that nature." Then I can turn around, and look at the available GPS systems today and say, "OK, based on your specific requirements, this is the system that will get it done for you for the least amount of money." There is a wide range of systems. Everything from simple data loggers up to real-time vehicle tracking systems that are web based, real time information, as it's happening, on the fly. And GPS Fleet Solutions can deliver that information not only across the United States, but in Canada as well because we are able to use the Internet and maximize the technology to reach out to people and show people exactly what it can do. We've got multiple systems, and with those multiple systems we get to play a consultant. If we had one system, that was our only system, then we would really have to try and convince everybody that was the way to go, but we consult with large corporations, city agencies, state governments, businesses with multiple locations, different departments, maybe facilities nationwide, and we look at the technology and say "OK, how is GPS fleet tracking going to impact your payroll, your maintenance, your production, your customer service, routing, and pretty much a wide variety of areas in any organization".

Collin WORL: All right, you told me this story off the air, and I think it's a great story. You actually first got involved or were first associated with GPS tracking kind of being on the other side of the business. Tell us, we don't need to know the name of the company, but tell us a little about the difference that made for the company.

Eron GPSFS: Sure, I was with a national pest control company, and I was testing GPS tracking technology in my office and we had about thirty vehicles that were on the system. The bottom line is, after sixty days of running the GPS and tweaking the routes, and holding people accountable for keeping the schedules, things of that nature, we actually saw a 30% increase in productivity. Which is phenomenal.

Collin WORL: Wow, if some organizational manager comes in, and he can provide a 30% increase, the guy is writing his own check. He is going anywhere he can. You can do this with your own company. Now that's a 30% increase, how long does it take to pay itself off?

Eron GPSFS: Most customers get their money back in 30 to 90 days, and that's the capitol investment on the equipment but also in the case of real time technology on the monthly service fees that go along with that. We have a few customers that may stretch it out to about six months, but GPS technology is another tool in the management tool box that is used just like a PC, just like a service ticket, and it certainly doesn't replace leadership, but it gives you additional insight into the detailed activity of a vehicle every single minute of the day throughout the day.

Collin WORL: All right, so what you are saying is you can pay off that whole first year, your expenditure to get the system set up and everything else, and pay it off in 30, 60, or 90 days. In most cases one of those three. Occasionally, if they were running a really tight ship, six months. It's still getting paid off.

Eron GPSFS: Right, it's absolutely do-able to make that happen that fast.

Collin WORL: Wow, that is impressive. All right, you mentioned you didn't always have to go with the real time all the time. What are the different types of GPS systems you offer?

Eron GPSFS: OK, well let me clarify the main categories first. The first is vehicle navigation. A lot of people call about GPS and really what they are asking for is vehicle navigation. That's the in-vehicle map that you see, that helps the driver get around from point A to point B. You have personal navigation, which is often used by people who are hunting and fishing. It's a little handheld device, and it might show you a topographical map or just keep up with where you have been. The third kind is what we do, and that's vehicle tracking and fleet management. That is for business and government applications where they want to keep track of vehicle activity. Again, where did my vehicle go, where did it stop, how long did it take to get there? How fast did it drive to get there, how much engine idle time do we have? Things of that nature.

Vehicle tracking is then broken down into real time tracking, and passive tracking. Real time technology has two primary types of technology. You have operational, and what I call exception reporting systems. The systems vary by coverage area, the cost for the equipment and the monthly fees as well as the detail of the information that you have. Our most popular real time system, for example, updates every 5 minutes automatically. You can PING the vehicle in between those 5 minute updates if you want a more frequent look at that vehicle. People like that technology because it is web based in most cases and you can get to that information whether you are at home or the office. We have one customer who goes down to the Caribbean every summer, and he keeps track of his vehicles via a satellite Internet connection off of his boat and keeps things on track.

Collin WORL: He tracks them. They don't track him.

Eron GPSFS: Right. (laughs) The real time technology gives you immediate actionable information. One of the biggest applications for real time technology is just simply dispatching. There are a lot of businesses out there that get into service calls that come in throughout the course of the day. It's extremely important to be able to locate the vehicle that is closest to a particular call and send the right vehicle. If you don't have that information, you may have to get on your two-way radio and call five or six different people. Meanwhile, the customer is sitting on the phone waiting for an answer. If you can pull it up and look at the vehicle's position online, you know immediately who is going to be sent and how far they are from that location, and probably about how long it's going to take for them to get over there.

It's got a lot of big pluses. Some of the things people don't like is you have monthly airtime fees. You are communicating your information across somebody else's network so you've got to pay for that; but when you look at the return on investment it's really inconsequential if you can save one hour a month in wages or if you can get one additional service call completed per month, then you have covered that monthly fee.

Collin WORL: Dispatchers have to love you. I worked for a company and it was exactly like you just described. We'd get a service call, and I had to fill in for the dispatcher a few times and I hated it. I couldn't wait to get out of that office because you're calling twelve different people before you stumble onto somebody in the area. You're cutting that down, which was 20 or 30 minutes, to seconds, mere seconds.

Eron GPSFS: Yeah, that's absolutely inefficient these days and unacceptable in most industries. The old days of waiting for the washer repair man to show up and waiting between 9am and 5pm, you know, those days are over. Businesses today should be able to deliver, for their customer, a one hour time window for their time of service at the time of the first phone call. Anything else is just not acceptable in today's environment. People want information and they want it now.

Collin WORL: All right. If you are a business owner and you can see how this could help your business and you want more information, give the guys at GPS Fleet Solutions a call. That's 800-478-9394. Also you can look them up on the web, there is a ton of information. There is just so much on their website, just cruise their website, you will be impressed. It's www.gpsguy.biz.

Eron, you told us about the real time. What if I don't want to follow my guys all the time, but I do see the value in this. What's the passive offer?

Eron GPSFS: Well, passive technology records GPS information in great detail and holds that information on the vehicle. When that vehicle returns to a central location, typically back at the office, that information is transferred from the vehicle to the office computer using a wireless connection. And that process takes place automatically. You don't have to have to have a manager involved; you don't have to involve the drivers. Simply, when that vehicle pulls up, shuts the engine off, data is transferred to the office computer. Industries that like the passive technology are those companies that have set routes. When the vehicles leave in the morning, they know exactly where they are going. They just need to verify that the vehicles are staying on schedule, and passive technology has no monthly fees so companies can avoid that monthly expense by looking at this option.

Collin WORL: All right, if you need more information, give the guys at GPS Fleet Solutions a call. It's 800-478-9394. Also look them up on the web. It's www.gpsguy.biz. Coming up in just a moment on the GPS Fleet Solutions show, Eron's going to tell us what kinds of industries put this to use, and like we said, hey, this thing pays itself off in 30, 60, 90 days. Improve your business. Improve your bottom line. It's the GPS Fleet Solutions show on 660 WORL.