Company Name
City of Las Vegas
Industry
Government
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
Website
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Halloween may be over, but for fleet managers, the real scare happens when a major collision leads to a seven-figure liability claim. Let’s talk...
The City of Las Vegas has already shared how GPS Insight helped them take control of a complex fleet, from improving visibility to streamlining operations in a previous testimonial. But their story doesn’t stop there. As the city continues to expand and adapt its fleet management strategy, GPS Insight remains a trusted partner—driving cost savings, smarter asset utilization, and long-term planning, all backed by outstanding customer service.
Challenge
Before partnering with GPS Insight, the City of Las Vegas had been looking for a service provider that could attend to their specialized needs, including separating invoices and dealing with multiple departments. They needed to track and manage a diverse fleet, get real-time information on asset location and condition, optimize routes, and address maintenance issues. They also needed a company that had easy-to-use software, so they could meet their current needs, plus grow for the future.
The City of Las Vegas has found that GPS Insight has met their needs in a variety of ways, including for real-time asset tracking, maintenance monitoring, route optimization, and cost savings.
A Glimpse Into Cost Savings
Due to monitoring vehicles, there’s less expensive maintenance on vehicles, plus less money wasted on vehicles not being used.
“The dash alerts let us see when a battery is dying…and also to be able to see underutilized vehicles,” said Tracee Scott, Fleet & Fuel Services Manager for the City of Las Vegas.
As a result, they hope to be able to confirm the underutilized vehicles are, and disperse them to departments that are really in need. With introduction of electric vehicles in the future, the first step is to right-size the current fleet.
“Looking at it as a whole and not in pieces allows us to plan for the future,” Tracee said. “If you’re paying $300,000 for a sweeper, and you’re not sweeping the streets, it’s losing value. If you’re not out there jetting those lines with a vacuum truck, we’re losing money. So it saves on labor and it saves us on parts.”
In addition to being responsible for 1,450 vehicles and equipment, they also manage 19 fuel sites. Every site is monitored 24/7, and fuel is trucked in weekly to the sites in need.
“We have 3,000+ city employees and still growing, for them to do their job, they need us,” Tracee said. “They can’t get to the parks to clean them…they need to inspect buildings and construction site. Most things that are done need transportation or equipment. So, the soft savings shine a light on the not-so-obvious items that are truly broken. It saves our assets and extends the life.”
In addition, the ability to provide preventive maintenance versus reactive maintenance can result in being able to provide better care of their assets, and be able to obtain a better resale value.
“We’re able to obtain larger profits when we auction them at the end of their useful life for us,” Tracee said. “And then they can leave with a little bit of life for the people purchasing them as well, which isn’t a bad thing.”
In addition, the City of Las Vegas also sees savings on time, labor, and parts.
“Where we are saving cost is just the amount of time spent tracking various things…what we can see with idling, a lot of times is worse for a vehicle than the mileage itself,” Scott said. “And it’s saving engines. Engines are $10,000 or more to replace, and so we’re saving on those costs. We’re saving on the mechanic costs. We have two different facilities where we maintain the vehicles. So we’re saving on that. We’re saving on parts. It’s endless where we’re saving. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.”
Finding the Best Telematics Provider
The City of Las Vegas did a small pilot and created a wish list using the various issues when using a variety of previous telematics providers. For Tracee, it meant revisiting the past 17 years.
They wanted a solution where they had the option to expand and grow the program in the future.
“Another great thing about GPS Insight is we were allowed to pick two different types of devices,” Tracee said. “A lot of the other providers only offered one device. Where we need to track specific operations, such as street sweeper broom use and PTO engagement, which need a device with greater ability. We also need a device to track the basics for our light fleet. So, we are able to pick and choose and really make it work for us. And that matters—that difference in price. It matters when you’re trying to do not just your vehicles, but your entire fleet equipment.
Selecting the Best GPS Service
“When we started with GPS Insight, I got chills from just their presentation,” Tracee said. “And when I say that, I mean their overall presentation. We use the word a lot—professionalism—and all those catchy phrases. And they were the embodiment of that.”
GPS Insight takes pride in customer service, and the representatives met the many needs of the department.
“It felt like the pride that was taken many, many years ago by sales…we’re not giving you samples of other departments and other customers that we have,” Tracee said. “When we go through every step of this, you can see your stuff. That’s vital. They did a phased in approach of meeting staff and it was always with the caveat of, should you choose us, this will be so and so over your account. I can’t explain how much of a playbook that is. That is a blueprint that vendors and service providers need to go back to because it’s about being heard, being seen, and being valued.”
Tracee is very pleased with the level of service she’s experienced.
“It’s just basically them being good to people, making people happy and…it felt like they only hire people that can make other people feel that way,” Tracee said. “That’s what it feels like working with GPS Insight. It has been years since I’ve felt that kind of honesty…they didn’t want to just sell to us. They wanted to earn our business. I will recommend them to everyone.”
Solution
When solving the pertinent problems, The City of Las Vegas uses GPS Insight in other ways, too. Brenton Messner is the city’s Fleet Services Supervisor, where he works with a large mixed municipal fleet of 18 wheelers, lawnmowers, street sweepers, sewer vacuum trucks, and a variety of inspection vehicles. He finds great value in GPS Insight for fleet maintenance alerts.
“We’re getting mileage, engine hours, and the locations if there’s a breakdown,” Brenton said. “It speeds up our ability to find the vehicles and not have to keep bugging people and making a dozen phone calls just to be able to find the vehicle that’s broken.”
One of his biggest challenges in daily operations was getting the users to bring vehicles in for maintenance in the first place.
“Thankfully, now that we’re getting quality information…instead of waiting on the operator to hopefully notice that they’ve gone over on mileage, we can e-mail and get them brought in,” he said.
With GPS Insight, not only do they get preventive maintenance help, but they also get predictive maintenance assistance for their fleet.
“We know something is coming up to failure, or we can check the diagnostic codes before the vehicle gets to us, and we can pre-order parts if we’re confident we know the issue,” he said. “With GPS Insight, we’re a lot more proactive in getting vehicles brought in to be able to get the maintenance done. Before it was always reactive on the operators to notice their mileage, and now we’re able to have up-to-the moment information…and start sending reminders sooner and really be on top when they’re getting past due.”
Overall, this improves the performance of the entire fleet.
“There’s less downtime,” he said. “It drives our ability to be able to call in our vehicles as they’re nearing due.”
The Perks of Pinpoint Location
In addition to keeping everyone current with regular maintenance, GPS Insight also helps when vehicles and drivers need emergency assistance.
“The main features that we use most often for GPS Insight are definitely when vehicles are broken down on the side of the road,” Brenton said. “We know exactly where they are. So if it’s a hazardous situation or a dangerous position, we can ask for extra assets to get out and make sure that we have emergency lighting and close lanes.”
Along with daily use, GPS Insight was also able to assist them in recovering a stolen vehicle.
“GPS Insight has been instrumental in recovering,” he said. “Thankfully we don’t have a huge theft issue, but we did have one vehicle that got stolen and was headed for the state line. The supervisor [noticed] the vehicle was exiting the area. We were able to promptly dispatch the police agencies and got the vehicle recovered without any damage. Other than losing a little bit of fuel, there were really no issues.”
Feeling the Flexibility
For the City of Las Vegas, having the flexibility to choose the right devices is a huge advantage. Some providers only offer a single solution, but GPS Insight is different.
The city uses solar trackers on their unpowered trailers, which helps them locate assets that might be lost. They also use powered asset trackers on equipment like lawnmowers, which don’t have a diagnostic port. This allows them to track the equipment’s location and hours of operation.
For the automotive fleet, they use a plug and play device and Geotab hardware. This is especially useful for the street sweeper fleet, since it allows them to capture specific details for reporting, such as whether the right or left gutter broom is down, if the pickup head is engaged, or if the water sprayers are on.
“With all these options, it’s definitely a huge advantage,” he said. “GPS Insight is pretty awesome.”
Benefits
From implementation to execution of day-to-day tasks, GPS Insight assisted the City of Las Vegas with:
Results
The City of Las Vegas has had a great experience with the GPS Insight support team for any issues.
“My experience with the GPS Insight support team has been fantastic,” Brenton said. “Anytime I’ve had to call in with an issue, phone gets answered almost immediately. It’s fantastic.”
Brenton has found that most situations require just one quick phone call to solve a problem.
“There are so many other vendors that could utilize that level of engagement and honestly, nearly every situation that I bring up is either I made the mistake or it’s a quick simple fix and just gets taken care of,” he said. “It’s been absolutely fantastic.”
If your fleet needs the backup that The City of Las Vegas received after seeking out GPS Insight to help track their teams, protect their assets, and clear up their daily inefficiencies, book a demo today to get started!
