Background
Snap-On Tools provides tools and equipment to a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, service and construction.
When the company was founded in Chicago around 1920, Snap-On's business model was a fleet of mobile representatives who visited customers at their place of business to showcase equipment and make sales.
Today, the business operates in much the same way, with a fleet of independent franchise stores set up inside custom-designed trucks instead of fixed shops, driving within designated regions to visit customers at the same time every week.
Additionally, they run a team of diagnostics trucks and survey trucks. With a fleet of around 154 independently owned franchise trucks, seven company store trucks and five diagnostics and survey trucks operating across Australia and New Zealand, Snap-On Tools employs around 103 staff throughout the region.
Challenges
Like many mobile businesses, Snap-On Tools needed to be able to quickly locate their trucks, and provide drivers with the most direct route directions. This was becoming more critical with rising fuel costs and the addition of new drivers or geographic regions.
They also faced a significant administration burden to manage the individual maintenance and service needs of each vehicle.
Solution
To meet these challenges, the company began searching for an organisation that could provide GPS tracking and navigation technology.
From their first engagement with Navman Wireless, Snap-On was impressed with the approach and business value for the solution that they quickly brought Navman Wireless on board as an official provider.
Steve Jones, national sales director of Snap-On Tools said, “We were impressed by the quick turnaround that Navman Wireless provided in putting together a tailored proposal that really emulated our business philosophy and solved specific business requirements.”
Snap-On was keen to ensure driver satisfaction with the new system, and stressed the security benefits of being able to track the location of the fleet, as well as to help reduce costs through more efficient routing and reduced fuel bills.
In particular, getting staff quickly to new sales opportunities was a high priority.
“If our team wasted 30 minutes to find a location, they could have sold a $12,000 piece of diagnostic equipment in that time,” Jones said.
Snap-On Tools’s diagnostics trucks are equipped with Navman Wireless Qubes – a GPS tracking system, which feeds critical business data back to head office through the Online Automatic Vehicle Locator 2 (AVL2) software.
The diagnostic trucks contain a lot of expensive software and equipment, so Qubes were brought in as a security function and method of quickly locating each truck.
The Qubes also provide a wide range of useful business information, including daily start/finish times, distance travelled for each job, idle times, time spent on each customer site, speeds and so forth.
Benefits
The biggest benefit brought about by the implementation of the Navman Wireless systems has been in helping reduce time and costs, through using the tracking and navigation functionality to provide greater business insight.
Another key benefit was in the improvement in handling maintenance schedules across the fleet.
A built-in module in OnlineAVL2 allows Snap-On Tools to track all their major maintenance categories, including: registration dates, services, oil change, tyre rotation, brake pad replacement, and more. In addition to tracking due dates, they can also make notes of costs, who did the work, and any additional information.
They have set the maintenance schedule based on specific vehicle needs and receive an email notification prior to the activity - say 2000kms before a service is due - and then again when it's due.
“Having a well maintained vehicle simply makes financial sense, but in the past we struggled to stay on top of all the activities and deadlines. Now we know nothing will slip through the cracks,” said Jones.
For example, industry figures show that correctly inflated tyres can reduce fuel costs by 1-2% a year, and regular rotation can extend tyre life. When you’re running a large fleet, these small changes can provide savings which can add up considerably.
The Navman Wireless devices also help encourage driver safety, for example ensuring they adhere to occupational health and safety regulations such as stopping for a break at least every two hours.
Efficiency
Jones said, “By far the biggest benefit achieved by the Navman Wireless systems is an overall increase in efficiency. We have saved a lot of time that was previously spent looking after administrative functions, and now have greater insight into our business operations and peace of mind that our fleet is under control.
“We are planning to install Navman Wireless products in additional vehicles as the fleet expands, and would like to encourage our franchisees to explore the business benefits of this system for themselves.”
Image: Navman GPS tracking system with automatic vehicle tracking software