Hermes Landscaping, located in Shawnee, Kansas, is made up of four divisions that cover landscaping services in these sectors: residential, commercial, lawn/landscape, and sprinklers. With around 150 employees total, there was a need to keep track of vehicles and assets while they are out in the field. After doing some internet research, speaking with a representative, and trying out two demo devices, Hermes Landscaping is easily keeping track of their fleet of lawn equipment and vehicles across all divisions with the help of 75 Linxup GPS trackers.
Being able to set up geofences is the most useful feature for Hermes Landscaping so far. “We wanted to set perimeters [to] make sure [our employees] were being honest with where they were,” explains Brian Shannon, fleet manager at Hermes Landscaping. During the winter, the company hires contract workers to perform snow removals using Hermes Landscaping vehicles. At times when the workers get lost, Linxup allows managers to see where they are and where they need to go.
Using Linxup GPS trackers for theft purposes also allowed them to save thousands of dollars from potential vehicle losses. Not too long after having Linxup installed into their fleet vehicles, two vehicles were stolen. “It was really helpful for notifying the police. We sat here and watched in live time where they were at and that saved us about $75,000,” says Shannon. They were able to recover a skid loader and a pickup truck, relieving them of the potential stress that comes with replacing expensive assets for a company.
Employees may fudge the times of their breaks and working periods every now and then — Linxup keeps them honest. “[Employees] get a 45 minute lunch and they were spending an hour and a half. They’re wasting time, wasting fuel,” Shannon says. Once Hermes Landscaping installed Linxup trackers, noticeable improvements were made with productivity, reduced idling, fuel savings, and maintenance.
In addition to this, Linxup helped Hermes Landscaping with fleet organization. For their day-to-day business processes, managers overseeing each of the four divisions have access to Linxup so they can properly monitor each vehicle within their group. “Each truck is an asset, and on Linxup, for each GPS device I put that asset number beside it,” Shannon explains. When the managers know which employee is assigned to each specific vehicle, they instantly know where that driver is supposed to be going, making sure they get to the job on the correct route.
Click to Download a PDF of this article.