How GPS Tracking Reduces Labour Costs

One of the key benefits of installing GPS  tracking solutions is that the software can help lower labour costs.

Here’s how you can use the GPS tracking software to reduce their labour costs:

Tighten schedules

GPS provides better estimates for travel time, letting dispatchers reduce schedule gaps in the technician’s day. When a tech looks at his daily schedule and sees lots of openings, it can lead to unproductive work habits. Also, an inefficient schedule leaves the business responsible for paying for wasted time. On the other hand, too tight a schedule will create situations where techs show up late to jobs. Late techs mean dissatisfied customers. So, packing a tech’s day with back-to-back jobs can help with employee utilization rates, but if there isn’t proper balance, it can come at the expense of customer satisfaction.

Reduce overtime

Many hourly employees are paid time and a half for any over time they work. In some cases, scheduled overtime works out well for a fleet. Techs have an opportunity to earn more and the fleet avoids the overhead of adding another full-time employee. However, too much overtime can backfire. Techs get burnt out, fleets end up paying higher labour costs, and regular working hours become less productive as techs look for excuses to work for the higher rates.

Reduce employee turnover

The efficiency and productivity improvements that GPS tracking helps achieve can reduce employee turnover. With less scheduling gaps and healthy amounts of overtime for each month, employees will be more satisfied overall, and will be less likely to go looking for another job. By reducing turnover, the business’ labour force will be more productive because there will be less time spent recruiting and training new employees, and employees will be more experienced and productive on average.

Identify productivity trends

What gets measured gets managed. Fleet managers have to be able to see beyond the minutia of the daily activities of their fleets. They have to see the big picture of how their fleet is operating and how productive each employee is over the course of the week, month, and year.

Reward top performers

The labor cost for the top performing quarter of employees is lower than the bottom quarter because of how much more productive they are. They should be rewarded for their good work and productivity. Even with financial rewards, high performing employees result in lower labor costs since the business is able to get more valuable productivity. Rewarding productivity tends to result in more productivity. They more than make up for their higher earnings in higher productivity and other benefits to the business.