Unlock field service ROI: Your practical guide to connected operations playbook

Whether you're running electrical, plumbing HVAC or landscaping companies, your field service company relies on mobile teams and fleets to keep business running. But field service operations face an impossible juggling act: cutting costs while upgrading technology, delivering exceptional customer experiences often with limited staff and turning a profit when top technicians are already maxed out. These pressures often lead to missed jobs, delayed service and higher overhead—challenges that can quietly erode both customer trust and margins.

In this post, we break down the real cost drivers in field operations, and how connected fleet tools from Geotab can reduce downtime, boost technician output and directly impact your bottom line. 

The hidden cost of inefficiency 

The reality for field service operations is that a handful of critical problems repeatedly sabotage success. 

• Inefficient routing and dispatching: A typical technician loses over 40% of their workday to inefficiency, leading to multiple hours of idle time and up to one hour on avoidable travel.
• Unplanned downtime and maintenance costs: Vehicles breaking down at the worst possible moment, leaving customers stranded and repair bills skyrocketing. An unexpected breakdown costs fleets between $488 and $760 per day, per vehicle.
• High fuel consumption and driver behaviour issues: Fuel costs eating into margins while aggressive driving and idling waste money and damage your fleet. Aggressive driving can cut gas mileage by 15 to 30 percent at highway speeds and up to 40 percent in stop-and-go traffic.
• Lost productivity and dissatisfied customers: With 47% of appointments running behind schedule and poor communication compounding delays, the result is a cascade of frustrated customers and eroding profit margins. 

These inefficiencies don't just hurt today's bottom line, they create a downward spiral that erodes profitability, destroys customer trust and kills any chance of sustainable business growth.

The secret to advancing field service operations?

Leveraging connected fleet operations delivers measurable ROI by eliminating downtime, crushing inefficiencies and ending customer delays. Research shows companies achieve over 10% productivity gains, 15-30% fleet size reductions and 5-10% maintenance cost cuts through telematics optimization—hitting every major pain point that disrupts field service profits.

Geotab's advanced field service telematics solutions step in to break the cycle and turn operational chaos into competitive advantage. 

Understanding ROI through connected operations

Real field service ROI emerges through daily operations: completing more jobs, reducing breakdowns and optimizing technician time. Every technology, process or equipment investment multiplies value through cost savings, increased revenue and enhanced efficiency.

Research shows companies invest an average of 7.5% of revenue in digital transformation, with 64% of business leaders prioritizing ROI when evaluating new technology. This demonstrates proven confidence in the multiplier effect that creates sustainable cost savings, increased revenue and enhanced efficiency through operational improvements.

Geotab helps unlock ROI in critical areas: dispatching, maintenance, safety and customer satisfaction.

Key areas of ROI impact

Optimize routing and dispatching: Geotab helps you optimize dispatching by giving dispatchers real-time visibility into vehicle location, traffic and job urgency—so they can assign the right job to the right technician faster and with fewer miles driven. By driving optimized routes, field service companies can increase the number of jobs completed daily, enhance operational transparency, increase on-time arrivals up to 98% and reduce mileage by approximately 15 to 30%, helping reduce fuel costs.

Say a technician receives an emergency HVAC call during a summer heatwave. With Geotab’s smart dispatching, the route is optimized in real time and the customer gets an ETA. The job is completed efficiently and the technician has time to take one more appointment that would’ve otherwise been pushed to the next day.

Ferrovial Servicios used Geotab's telematics platform with integrated weight sensors to optimize waste collection routes. By tracking container fill levels in real-time, they reduced routes from three to one while avoiding overflow penalties. "We get all the data through the Geotab platform," says Unai Obieta, Technology Manager. "This is very important because we don't have to work with different platforms."

Predict failures before they happen: Research suggests repair and maintenance costs recently rose by 3.1% to $0.202 per mile, while the total cost per mile to operate a single truck hit a record high of $2.270 per mile. Geotab’s fleet maintenance solution reduces downtime, cuts repair costs and keeps trucks rolling instead of breaking down. 

Monitor driver behavior: Real-time alerts and driver scorecards transform aggressive driving habits into smooth, efficient operations that extend vehicle life and improve driver safety. Frequent heavy braking and quick acceleration can reduce fuel economy by 33% during highway driving, making driver behavior monitoring invaluable for coaching improvements. With engines and related systems consuming 60% of total maintenance budgets, catching these issues before they become major repairs delivers significant cost savings while keeping fleets safely on the road.

Wiseway Supply used Geotab's telematics to slash operational costs while improving fleet safety, turning their riskiest drivers into their most reliable performers through data-driven coaching and accountability.

Real-time asset tracking: Track equipment and prevent theft while boosting efficiency. When ServiceMaster of the Valley lost a vehicle to theft, they deployed Geotab's telematics to secure their fleet and maximize asset usage. As franchise owner Harry Harmes puts it, "If the vehicle is supposed to be on the job, I'd like to know that it's on the job." This complete fleet visibility not only prevented future theft but also revealed underutilized assets that could be redeployed to generate additional revenue.

Optimizing field service fleets through connected operations

When your fleet operations are connected—vehicles, drivers, and maintenance data—you can make faster decisions, complete more jobs and respond to issues before they impact customers. Serve more customers with existing resources through real-time visibility and route optimization that delivers measurable ROI. 

Ready to boost your ROI? 

Schedule a demo today or use Geotab's calculator to see how much your business could save.