Trident Elevator Co Ltd.: Driver communication

The Challenge: Communication Gaps

With a sprawling service area throughout greater Toronto, Trident Elevator is in constant need of prompt communications with field service workers. Whether it’s confirming service time or getting the closest driver to an emergency call, Trident Elevator must be able to respond to customer calls in a timely manner.

Anna Prosperi, office manager for Trident Elevator, says the company was in need of reliable field reporting, and was somewhat familiar with telematics technology. After learning about some of the reporting and communications benefits, she thought it would be smart to investigate. “Adding telematics is about confirmation that the vehicle didn’t leave that site until such and such time, for example, and just good supporting documentation to what we’re doing,” she says.

Now, Trident Elevator has been a Geotab customer for almost 4 years, and can safely say the system has helped to save an employee’s life.

The Solution

With field service employees sometimes working in dangerous conditions when it comes to elevator repair, increased visibility regarding the whereabouts of each worker has been the primary benefit of telematics for Trident Elevator. “A lot of the mechanics are on their own,” Prosperi says. “If we don’t hear from them for a bit, we start to get concerned.”

Telematics allows them to verify when mechanics arrive at job sites and how long they stay. Knowing about how much time a job should take, dispatch will reach out to the mechanic if he or she has spent too much time at a job site. This same feature also allows them to save on gas and time when the company receives an emergency service call by sending the closest available mechanic. “They might be en route for a maintenance call, but if we get a call for a breakdown or an entrapment, everything stops and they have to go to that.”

Taking it a step further as a smaller business, the tracking technology also allows Trident Elevator to compare this information with mechanic timesheet information. This helps the company confirm overtime as well as identify what actually happened, and if there is any overlap in reported time between two jobs.

The Results

In one instance, the tracking feature even helped the company save an employee’s life. A mechanic had taken two consecutive sick days from work but would call in every day to check in. On the third day, they didn’t get a phone call. “So we tried calling him and he wasn’t answering,” Prosperi says. “We thought it was odd because he always comes in.”

Using Geotab, the company located his vehicle, and upon arriving there was no response at the door. Looking in, they could see he was on the floor and the paramedics were then called. “He was close to dying,” she says. “If our employee hadn’t gone there, he would’ve died. Paramedics came right away, and they said that if we hadn’t found him when we did, he wouldn’t be alive.”

Keeping everyone honest

Whether it’s employees, customers, or even anonymous callers claiming an employee was driving erratically, using Geotab has helped the company keep people honest. With overtime claims on timesheets, the company can crosscheck that with time on site, and if customers dispute a bill, they can also cross-check time spent through the tracking data. In one case where someone tried to claim an employee almost hit them, by looking at the driver behavior of any drivers near the area of the complaint, it was clear that the claim was false.

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From the fleet manager

“Our drivers are now more respectful and more cautious about what they’re writing down and how they’re driving, it’s all part and parcel of having Geotab.” - Anna Prosperi, office manager for Trident Elevator