Atlanta Arbor Improves Visibility and Cuts Costs with IoT-Enabled GPS Fleet Tracking

Thanks to ThingTech, metro Atlanta tree care specialist, Atlanta Arbor, knows exactly when their vehicles enter and exit a job location.

Since commercial and residential tree services are usually scheduled one month in advance, Atlanta Arbor must carefully manage its staff and tight schedule. Of course, last-minute jobs and emergencies happen, and when it does, locating their four-man crew costs unnecessary time and money. Josh Marotta, owner of Atlanta Arbor, found an answer by installing ThingTech Real Time, an IoT-enabled GPS tracking solution that enhances visibility into field operations by gathering real-time data from vehicles in transit or at rest.

It’s hard to maintain service levels while constantly putting out fires. Sometimes interruptions are important but not urgent. When it’s both you must drop everything and act immediately. But getting work order updates to Marotta’s crew wasn’t easy. The biggest communication problem is that an arborist’s work isn’t smartphone-friendly. “With ThingTech we can locate crews who aren’t available [via phone] while on the job,” says Marotta. “Prior to ThingTech we would call, because it was too time-consuming to roll a truck to the site.” Atlanta Arbor serves customers across metro Atlanta. Rolling trucks to a job site could easily take two hours or more in Atlanta traffic, and even then, there’s no guarantee that the crew would still be there.

After installing ThingTech Real Time, it’s difficult to overvalue Atlanta Arbor’s step towards digital transformation. ThingTech does more than provide fleet control, which saves Marotta time and money by tracking the location and movement of his assets in real-time.

Today, there is nothing more important to Marotta than setting up geofences to determine the exact time his crew enters and exits a location. But tomorrow, this data will appreciate with analytics. When combined with historical data, geofence data will help Atlanta Arbor draw relationships between service times, work locations, assets used/utilization, job types, and weather.

Atlanta Arbor has been using ThingTech Real Time for several months now, and Josh reports that GPS tracking data is also being used by his scheduling coordinator to inform customers of estimated arrival times.

Then there is the scalability of ThingTech Real Time to support future IoT applications. Atlanta Arbor recently announced the launch of Green Waste, a new division of the company that uses a 50-yard grapple truck to haul large trunk pieces and debris removal.

ThingTech Real Time provides everything Josh needs to manage and reroute the nearest truck to pick up green waste loads. Moreover, this solution can also be augmented with ThingX Mobile, a mobile application that helps field service companies track their fleet, equipment, and mobile workforce in real-time. ThingX mobile provides real-time visibility, real-time route planning, work order optimization, enhanced job scheduling, and automated dispatching.

For fleet and field service management, ThingTech Real Time provides operations managers with real-time data and analytics that can help reduce fuel costs, keep crews on schedule, and maximize your return on investment through optimal asset utilization. For more information about ThingTech Real Time, please contact Delfon Wilson or visit us at www.thingtech.com.