Neil T Fallon Services

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  • Azzona Drainage Contractors
  • Mullane Maintenance
  • Salmon Plumbing
• Transport Customers

"We've seen a real culture change regarding timesheet accuracy and private usage of vehicles. There's a new attitude that's helping us reduce costs and improve productivity."

Neil T Fallon Services has traded for 46 years and provides a range of services to the South East Queensland area including electrical and data services, plumbing and gas fitting, air conditioning, TV antenna and reception services and appliance repairs.

The company currently employs nearly 100 staff and utilises 60 vehicles to complete in excess of 20,000 jobs per year. Fallon Services' motto of "We can be there today" means that it's essential to know where technicians are at any time.

As the company has grown, it was becoming increasingly difficult to communicate with technicians and to optimise productivity. So they decided to look at a tracking and navigation system. They arranged a trial with Navman Wireless, saw that it could deliver a good visual and reporting tool and decided to install it across the fleet. Fallon Services started with a trial of 10 vehicles in 2008, now they have Navman Wireless installed in 40 vehicles and will continue a staged roll out across all vehicles. Members of the management, service centre and trades teams have found the system very easy to use and understand.

Better Communication and Reporting for Everyone

Mr Denning says that 10 - 12 people in the office use the Navman Wireless in a variety of ways. "The managers of the electrical and plumbing teams use the OnlineAVL2 as a visual tool. The customer service team use it for job routing and telling customers where technicians are. Payroll staff check job start and finish times with Navman Wireless and I occasionally have a look to see how everything's going."

Since Fallon Services completes between 350 - 550 jobs per week, their scheduling and routing has to be very accurate. They currently use one system to accept bookings and Navman Wireless to dispatch the jobs. Soon they will integrate both systems to streamline processes even further.

Mr Denning says, "It's been very simple to incorporate Navman Wireless with our existing systems. It's really helped with the guys that do lots of small jobs. The customer service team can easily route technicians based on who's closest to the next job and the M-Nav gets the technician there by the shortest route. Even if a technician doesn't call in to say when he's finished a job, the OnlineAVL2 shows when he's left a site."

Reduced Private Usage

Fallon Services' staff are only supposed to use their vehicles to get from home to jobs and back home. Before Navman Wireless, the company knew some technicians were using their trucks outside of work hours but couldn't prove it. Since installing the tracking devices, this private usage is definitely down as evidenced in lower fuel costs and less vehicle wear and tear.

"As soon as the system was installed, the private use stopped. And we haven't lost any staff because of Navman Wireless. We were open and honest with them about why we were installing the system and now the guys like it. They enjoy having the M-Nav in their trucks and appreciate that it's now much easier to communicate with the main office," says Mark Denning the Managing Director.

Improved Customer Service

Fallon Services has always called their customers to let them know when a technician is on his way. Navman Wireless enables the company to be even more accurate. For instance, if they tell a customer that someone will be there between 12pm and 3pm and the customer calls at 2pm, the service centre can tell the customer exactly where the technician is and approximately how long it will take them to get to the customer's location.

Mr Denning adds, "It doesn't happen often, but if a customer says that we have charged too much, we simply run the Navman Wireless report that proves exactly when we arrived and left a site. We fax the report to the customer and the discrepancy is sorted."

"We look forward to completing the roll out and training staff further on the system to maximise the opportunities that Navman Wireless offers," concludes Mr Denning.