Founded in 1953, John Jackson Masonry is a commercial masonry contractor, managing projects including gymnasiums, prisons, arenas, and other large commercial projects in Northern California and Northwestern Nevada. Their customers rely on their services for heavy-duty construction projects and high-quality craftsmanship.

Challenge

At John Jackson Masonry, Matt Carlson, Vice President and Safety Director, found himself waiting for drivers to bring trucks back to the yard, “not knowing if they’re gonna be there at 3:30 PM or 6:00 PM, and they’re not answering their phone.”

John Jackson Masonry team members would either be waiting on a truck to come back, or playing phone-tag to figure out where it was.

“I used to have to call, and nobody would answer,” Carlson said.

“I’d wait for him to call me back, and then, the person I’m trying to relay that information to would call me again,” Carlson said. “And you just rely on other people to give you that information, and it’s frustrating for the people that have to stop what they’re doing to answer their phones.”

Time spent going back and forth on the phone was time taken away from productivity. Instead of getting the job done, the masonry was trying to keep track of their fleet the hard way, with old GPS technology.

“You couldn’t manage where it was,” Carlson said.

In the 90s, John Jackson Masonry depended on a primitive GPS pinger, primarily used for stolen equipment, but not reliable for day-to-day tracking. After a piece of equipment went missing, the masonry would need to call the GPS company, who would contact the police, and the two parties would track the vehicle together.

For John Jackson Masonry, this process wasn’t going to suffice for much longer.

When it happened again, John Jackson Masonry was ready.

“I had equipment stolen, and within 15 minutes I’m on-site to get it and have it back in our yard,” Carlson said.

According to John Jackson Masonry, if one piece of equipment goes missing for a day, lost productivity can snowball. GPS Insight saves them as much as two to three months of productivity with each piece of heavy equipment we track.

For John Jackson Masonry, the GPS Insight solution didn’t stop at finding missing heavy equipment or keeping track of vehicles. According to managers, the GPS Insight trackers have even helped prevent fraud, and our mobile app has simplified the day-to-day workflow.

Fraud prevention

Thanks to real-time monitoring and data storage, our tracking solution proves when and where heavy equipment and vehicles are located.

“I would say probably 25% of the time it’s legitimate, but 75% of the time it’s just fraud,” Carlson said.

With our tracking solution, John Jackson Masonry was able to prove that 75% of calls were fraud cases with false claims by verifying the location of the vehicles at specific times.

“I can pull up the GPS of where they were or where they weren’t and eliminate a lot of it right from the get-go,” Carlson said.

Easy-to-use mobile app

Efficient communication is a priority for a heavy-duty construction company. But John Jackson Masonry wasn’t expecting to solve this challenge with our tracking solution, which includes monitoring information on our desktop dashboard and mobile app.

“I get a phone call about something, I can pull up the app and see which of my vehicles or pieces of equipment are moving on a particular project, and I can relay that information to who needs to know it,” Carlson said.

John Jackson Masonry managers can click on the address shown in the app and automatically be taken to Apple Maps, which can then be sent to their dispatch within a few seconds.

“It’s easy to navigate the app for the guys,” Carlson said. “It doesn’t require a lot of understanding. You can just open it up and it’s pretty intuitive, and I feel like the price is a good price point.”

“Ultimately, it’ll pay for itself.”

With the same hours of work and the same job locations, John Jackson Masonry said they easily saved 10% of fuel costs in the first month of using GPS Insight based on their elimination of unnecessary travel and side jobs. And those savings don’t count the savings in asset recovery and productivity. This is why John Jackson Masonry has – and continues to – recommend GPS Insight to others.