Just a few short years ago, the costs associated with purchasing and installing global positioning system (GPS) equipment, as well as maintaining their monthly fee schedule, were such that many HVACR business owners were not able to realize a return on their investments. But, like any technology, the costs have decreased significantly over the years, which have made GPS more accessible to more people. If you’re a contractor who is willing to invest in technology to add efficiency to your business, you should consider adding GPS tracking to your fleet. Here are the top five reasons why GPS tracking is a smart investment for your business:

1) You will be able to dispatch more efficiently — Regardless of which type of dispatch system you utilize, your operation could benefit enormously from your dispatcher knowing exactly where your vehicles are at any given time. All professional GPS packages come with a mapping function that plots your vehicles on a computerized geographical map. Nothing tells a story like a picture, and this picture will tell you exactly which qualified technician is the closest to your next emergency service call. Most systems also have the capability to account for traffic and construction, which can help your dispatchers and drivers avoid lengthy and costly delays. Additionally, many dispatch software applications can be fully integrated with a GPS partner, which takes many of the hard decisions out of the dispatch process.

2) Your payroll records will be more accurate — Most installers, service technicians, and sales people in our industry, because of the nature of the types of jobs that we perform, work remotely and are dispatched remotely. Accordingly, payroll records are usually estimates, even in the best case. Some companies will have their field employees call their hours in to a payroll service, some will have them punch in and out on a mobile device, and others will enter them manually. Assuming that none of your employees would intentionally steal time is not the right approach. There is still a propensity for most employees to round down to the beginning of their shifts and round up to the end of their shifts. For example, a technician that starts at 8:09 a.m. and finishes at 4:54 p.m. is very likely to report hours of 8-5 for that day. While this is only 15 minutes, consider the implications of this rounding in a company with 20 field employees:

(15 min per day) x (five days per week) x (52 weeks per year) x ($25/hour burdened rate) x 20 employees = $32,500 a year out of your bottom line profits for rounding a couple of minutes at the beginning and end of each shift. Your GPS tracking system will have the ability to start and end shifts at exactly the time the shifts are supposed to start and end. Even if each of these 20 employees drove their own vehicles, the savings in this example would equal $135 per employee, per month, which is far more than the GPS monitoring costs in the first place.