Case Study: Security Industry Solution

  • Industry: Security (Guarding, Armed Response, Asset Protection)
  • Vehicles/Assets: 600
  • Sites: South Africa

Security companies are expected to provide a high quality service to their customers, whether this being armed response, patrol visibility or guarding services, whilst management of security companies also need to manage business in such a manner that ensure optimum financial returns for business.

The GEOTAB solution for security companies is aimed at optimum levels of service and optimum efficiency to drive profitability within our customers’ businesses.

  • Safe driving required from their fleet drivers, taking into consideration that different vehicles have different roles, EG armed response vs guard transport services.
  • Optimum fleet size required, thus minimum mileage required whilst still meeting service levels as required by customers.
  • Factual data to monitor service levels offered to customers, such as response times to incidents, time spent on site during service requests and alarm activation.
  • Customer is self insured, thus requires a automated driver risk analysis and dashboard to manage driver performance against company “green band” of expected driving behaviour.
  • Customer vehicles are branded, thus customer identified a reputational risk should its drivers behave in an aggressive manner whilst on the road.

The customer’s fleet is a variety of different vehicles, models and brands, and they had a variety of roles to play within the business, GEOTAB therefore did an extensive analysis of the fleet prior to providing customer with solution that would meet and exceeded their requirements, this included the following:

  • Detailed analysis of the different vehicles within the fleet that included fuel spent, maintenance spent, tyres spent, number of accidents recorded, average damage and time spent out of service.
  • Current distances travelled by each vehicle per month, number of service calls completed, role of the different vehicles, region of different vehicles.
  • Detailed specifications of each vehicle in terms of a complex formula used by GEOTAB to determine fit for role analysis.

This data was analysed extensively by GEOTAB analysts to first determine the outliers within fleet in order to address these first as they were essentially low hanging benefits that could be realized immediately, after which the GEOTAB team identified on different levels the optimization of the fleet vehicles.

  • GEOTAB Core GO7 device via OBDII and three wire installations where no OBD port was available due to age or basic structure of the different vehicles.
  • Driver ID via NFC key’s
  • GARMIN GPS with integration and traffic module
  • GO-Talk unit with Active Tracking enabled
  • Driver Assist Buttons
  • In-Cab Cameras
  • Integration of alarm monitoring system into GEOTAB system

Further to that it was also suggested to customer to “blind” install a cross section of vehicles prior to full rollout of service in order to collect baseline data of vehicle behaviour.

Note:Blind install is a GEOTAB concept to have units installed without different driver knowledge, in order to get natural behaviour of vehicles to build a baseline from these vehicles, this assist immensely in post installation analysis of actual benefits realized once all the different elements are installed, and also acts as a check and balance for customer that GEOTAB system in fact does what it says it does prior to rolling out across hundreds of vehicles.

The cameras were proposed not as a method to watch the actual drivers but to assist in possible public liability claims and evidence in case of accidents of the different vehicles, the models proposed were thus simpler in nature as they were not connected to any wireless live views as per the more advanced camera solutions offered, which have a variety of additional features such as instant live video views, downloads over mobile or WiFi and host of other advanced features, we wanted to keep it simple.

The GO-Talk was proposed as it provides the driver with immediate voice feedback if any of the pre-set rules are broken, such as speeding, over revving or harsh driving behaviour, GEOTAB also proposed to set excessive idling parameters that driver could be monitored on to save wastage, loading of high accident zones and high crime zones, which would also be communicated to driver immediately should he/sh enter such a zone.

The GARMIN GPS unit with integration and traffic module was proposed as it allows for Dispatch directly from Command Center to driver via GARMIN, hence seamless and immediate dispatch of drivers to correct address, saving time and through the optimized routing on GARMIN, combined with traffic module ensures fastest most optimum vehicle routing.

Besides the GARMIN Routing the GEOTAB system can also select closest resource to address of response or service request required, once again aimed to ensure optimized routing and associated benefits.

The integration into alarm monitoring software also allows for auto dispatch of available and closest resource to such alarms, once again aimed at optimization of resources in an effective manner, and associated costs savings.

The Driver Assist buttons served a different purpose as opposed to its normal role of requesting assistance on the road, in this case the system was setup to allow the response officer to use this button to record a timestamp when he/she responded to a call, arrival and departure times at the customer premises, resulting in an audit trail of services delivered as well as freeing up radio time, especially during times of high volumes of calls.

Partner Solution – Applied Vehicle Analytic’s (AVA)

GEOTAB Partnered with AVA to supply the mining industry with specific productivity solutions within the open pit environment, the solution analyses real-time data against a set of criteria to maximize the time and motion of equipment, with the result that savings could be realized through reduction of mining fleet and/or maximum productivity with existing equipment.

A number of reports were utilized by customer these were linked to safety and productivity and included:

  • Driver risk reports that indicated riskiest drivers and overall driver scorecard, GEOTAB also introduced a driver recognition program with quarterly prizes for best performing driver.
  • Productivity report indicating number of customer visits and average times spent per customer, including stops that were not defined as customer zones.
  • Time spent at office and at home for employees that were required to take vehicles home and were largely sales and marketing oriented positions, this included time employees left home and office, and time spent at different points during the day

GEOTAB also designed a number of automated reports for customer aimed at ensuring immediate identification of any inefficiencies that may add cost to the fleet, this included:

  • Mileage targets per vehicle by vehicle group.
  • Excessive idling reports by vehicle group.
  • Service and Maintenance schedules.
  • Engine and other vehicle faults.
  • Fuel card integration.

Due to the base case and initial analysis done customer could identify at various points the actual value of the GEOTAB service vs original assumptions and continues to integrate the GEOTAB service in a number of ways into overall business, including regular sessions with C-Levels of the two companies.