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T.E. Roberts, Inc. Leverages Fleet Visibility to Prevent Unnecessary Downtime

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Tim Roberts, Owner and President of T.E. Roberts, Inc., has been using Teletrac Navman GPS tracking for over 10 years. Serving as an underground utility contractor for almost 20 years, the ability to see and know the location of all company vehicles and equipment has been key to running a smooth operation.

We recently caught up with Tim to learn how about the impact of using GPS tracking for his operations. Read our conversation to learn how T.E. Roberts, Inc. has leveraged our fleet management software to recover multiple stolen vehicles and mitigate excessive downtime.

Can you please give us a quick introduction of T.E. Roberts, Inc.?

Tim: T.E. Roberts, Inc. is an underground utility contractor. I started this business about 20 years ago with my son Justin. We’re dedicated to building and designing quality underground pipeline projects for private and public entities throughout Southern California. Our office is located in Irvine, CA.

 

What types of vehicles are in your fleet?

Tim: We have approximately 150 vehicles in our fleet. Everything from small trucks like a Ford Ranger to a big Ford F550 crew truck to a small dump truck to even heavy trucks – and everything in between.

 

What are some ways our solutions have helped your operations?

Tim: The biggest benefit of your solution is being able to see and know where all my equipment is at any given time. It definitely has improved productivity since we do not have to have someone running around looking for something or making phone calls.

We also have your camera hardware installed. We just recently put them in our crew trucks and some of our dump trucks and heavy trucks. The cameras are working out really well.
We had a time where we had about 6 rear end accidents. We’ve only had 1 rear end accident this year. The camera is definitely doing its job.

 

You’ve been able to recover a vehicle with our solution. Can you tell us more?

Tim: I actually recovered three vehicles with Teletrac Navman. I’ll tell you all three!

The first instance was about ten years ago. One of our trucks was with one of our operators and he had it parked on the side yard of his house. He woke up in the morning and discovered it was missing. He called me right away. Using your tracking software, I found the details quickly and got on the phone with the police. Within a few hours I was on my way with the police to the truck’s marked location. We found it a mile away in a cul-de-sac with the keys still inside it. Good news is that nothing was stolen or damaged and we had our operator back in the truck, ready for work within an hour.

When we had another vehicle stolen a second time, I got a call from one of my operators on a Saturday morning. I was out of town and nowhere near our office. Thanks to your mobile app, I was able to quickly track the vehicle from where I was and have the proper authorities recover the vehicle.

The third instance we had one of our bobtail dump trucks stolen and driven about 50 miles away from our office. One of our superintendents just so happened to be working close to the area of where the truck was located. Using Teletrac Navman’s GPS tracking software, we had the police join us in watching our stolen truck travel in real-time. As soon as we saw the vehicle’s marked location, it was only a matter of time before the police were attending the issue. Soon enough the police were dispatched to follow the thief and the vehicle was recovered within an hour.

 

How would you describe the value you saved in recovering your stolen vehicles?
Tim: Collectively it’s around $200,000 dollars. However, it’s not just about the vehicles. It’s important to also consider the important work equipment in those vehicles and the amount of time my crew would’ve lost if we never recovered them.

 

What can you say about Teletrac Navman as a whole?
Tim: Teletrac Navman is our first GPS fleet management provider. We’ve been with Teletrac Navman for approximately over 10 years. I picked you guys based on researching what providers had the best to offer. You guys had the best offering at the time and today you still do.

I recommend Teletrac Navman to other contractors. I think it’s a great system and it’s worked for me. You guys have saved me hundreds of thousands of dollars. Money talks and you’ve saved me money.

Results

Since implementing Teletrac Navman, T.E. Roberts, Inc.

  • Improved driving performance and on-road safety.
  • Saved nearly $200,000 via vehicle theft recovery.
  • Ensure smooth operations by preventing significant downtime.

Learn how you can achieve the same results. Check out our Fleet Management Solutions.

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