XataNet: Driving performance the data way
Idle time cut from 25% to 3%.
Speeding slashed from 20% to 0.2%.
30,000 gallons of fuel saved in one year.

How did we do it? The same way you can: By installing a XRS solution.

My company is a successful wholesale distributor that serves about 2,000 convenience stores east of the Mississippi. To drive performance, my company has established a number of key performance indicators (KPIs) that are tied to our company’s overall performance goals. From our perspective, these KPIs provide our entire staff with a clear picture of what success looks like.

As the manager of our fleet, I’m responsible for our fleet’s KPIs, which fall into five basic categories:

• Fuel Efficiency
• Labor management
• Equipment
• Maintenance and repair
• Safety

For each of KPI, we set targets. For instance, to reduce fuel costs, we set a target of 5% for idle time. To improve safety, we set a specific speed target. Any speed faster than that would be considered excessive.

Measure what you treasure

Everyone knows that you can’t improve what you don’t measure. So, with our targets in mind, we knew we needed to find a fleet management solution that would give us 360-degree, real-time information about both driver and vehicle performance.

Drivers, not vehicles, have the biggest impact on fuel efficiency. And with 50 tractors making 13 to 14 stops a day, we have a lot of island time. And because drivers want to keep their cabs cool in the summer and warm in the winter, this can add up to a lot of idle time.

Drivers also have a big impact on safety. A system that tracks vehicle performance can tell you that a truck sped for 300 miles, but a system that tracks driver and vehicle performance can tell you that Driver A sped for 100 miles, and Driver B sped for 200. Such a system can also tell you whether a driver took 30 minutes for lunch, or 3 hours, or even if he drove 25 miles to eat lunch at home with his wife.

Making it easy to deliver bottom-line results

As soon as we knew that we wanted to track driver performance, our vendor selection process became much easier. We quickly ruled out companies that tracked only vehicle performance and ended up with one clear leader: XRS and the XataNet solution.

XataNet gives us a wide range of driver and vehicle productivity tools. From navigation to speed management, from asset tracking to maintenance alerts, XataNet is helping us reduce costs, improve safety and compliance, and increase customer satisfaction.

Most important, it’s delivering bottom-line results. Before installing XataNet, we’d been monitoring our performance and knew that our idle was up to 30%. We reached our target of 5% in just two weeks. We’re also a much safer fleet now—drivers speed just 0.2% of the time they’re behind the wheel.

And most important, from a corporate perspective, fuel savings alone from reduced idle time and less speeding paid for the XataNet system within a year.

That payback was huge. When I told our president that I wanted to buy a fleet management system, he said to me, “Where will the ROI come from, and when?” Essentially he was saying, “I will lend you the money, but you’re going to have to pay me back.”
 
I’m glad I never had to think about what would have happened if we’d gone with a less robust system. Our investment may not have paid off.

Data speaks louder than words

As we’ve collected more and more data, we’re able to make faster decisions. We now have time to spend analyzing it, rather than jumping through hoops to collect it. A report that used to take 40 hours to generate now takes just 30 minutes, so our staff has 80% more time to spend on things that truly matter to our overall operations.

XRS has even helped us compare our numbers with those of similar fleets, so we have a clear picture of what we’re doing well and where we’re falling short.

The bottom line is that seeing how much we’ve improved—and having the numbers to prove it—has even made our sales team happy. While our competitors can talk all they want about on-time deliveries, we’re able to show our customers actual data. That data speaks a lot louder than just words. Our customers would agree.