City of Chattanooga Public Works — Working More Benefits Out Of Comet Tracker

Company Profile

Meeting the needs of its citizens is the key role of any local government. The City of Chattanooga Public Works is no exception. From reading water meters to repairing broken water mains, the Public Works department understands the importance of prompt service; not only to keep residents happy, but to conserve the city’s water supply.

Challenges

Justin Holland, from Chattanooga’s information technology department, stated that employee productivity and fast service are necessary to meet the goals of serving the public. Before they began using Comet Tracker, achieving those goals was no easy task. If a call came in to inform them of a broken water main, locating the vehicles on the road and determining who was available to do the job was time consuming and not always accurate.

In need of a solution, the public works department decided on Comet Tracker with the initial goal of just keeping track of their vehicles.

Benefits

Once in place, they soon discovered additional features of Comet Tracker that benefitted the city even more. Not only were they able to track their vehicles, but with the use of Comet Tracker’s “Closest To” feature, they were able to quickly determine which employee was closest to a job. This feature significantly reduced response time and decreased unnecessary wear and tear on vehicles. Since Comet Tracker is able to keep track of travel, daily mileage reports have also helped to ensure that vehicle maintenance takes place on a regular basis. As the employees have become more comfortable with the phone application, they have begun using the task features to record meter readings.

Justin said the benefits of Comet Tracker are “deeper than just being able to keep track of vehicles and improve dispatch times.” Better routing of employees to their jobs has increased productivity, improved accuracy of hours worked and reduced overtime. Knowing when vehicles are in need of maintenance has reduced breakdowns within the fleet as well.

Speaking enthusiastically about the return on investment with Comet Tracker, Justin said, “We are saving an average of $450.00 a month in fuel costs alone.” These benefits all contribute both directly and indirectly to the City of Chattanooga’s residents’ satisfaction with its local government, which is its greatest success.

Children’s Center of Hamden — Comet Tracker Helps Protect The Innocence Of Children

Company Profile

Founded in 1833 as "The New Haven Orphan Asylum”, The Children’s Center of Hamden is Connecticut’s oldest chartered, private child-caring agency. They provide care, residence and education for children struggling with serious life issues. Challenges include: emotional, behavioral, psychological and social problems; such as physical and/or sexual abuse, psychiatric illness, learning disabilities, substance abuse and family trauma. This institution serves approximately 170 people daily and has over 200 employees.

Challenges

The Children’s Center has a number of vehicles it uses to take their students to off-site locations for events and activities. The initial goal was to have the ability to track vehicle locations and monitor stop times to determine if the stop was at a sanctioned location. A rash of lawsuits experienced by the Catholic Church caused The Center to be proactive in an effort to protect themselves from allegations of abuse. The ability to anticipate an incident is nearly impossible. The cost of sexual molestation insurance caused the Children’s Center to take a unique approach to protect the children they serve.

Benefits

The Children’s Center management staff uses imbedded Vehicle Engine Monitoring (VEM) devices along with Comet Tracker software. The VEM devices allow them to continually monitor the driving performance of their vehicles, especially when children are on board. Employees are also monitored when visiting the homes of children offsite, particularly in dangerous neighborhoods. When a stop time is exceeded the software alerts the home office so that contact with the employee can be initiated and their safety ensured. These same stop times and locations can also be used to check potential molestation or abuse allegations. Comet Tracker both helps protect the children and saves The Center from higher insurance rates.

Comet Tracker provides a number of additional benefits that assist in The Center’s accreditation with the Department of Children and Families. It also shows the Joint Commission of Health Organizations (JCHO) that safety is important to the institution.

City of Minneola — Florida City Uses Comet Tracker To Improve Productivity

Company Profile

The city of Minneola was established in 1926 in Lake County, Florida. It has a population of around 9,000 residents and employs approximately 52 employees between all divisions including Code Enforcement, Water Supply, Parks & Recreation and Streets & Highways.

Challenges

The city had trouble locating their employees throughout the day. They were concerned that employees were going to neighboring towns outside the city limits, which is against policy. In addition, there had been instances where city trucks were stolen from employees’ houses and then taken for a joy ride. Fortunately, these trucks did not sustain any damage, but it took the employees hours to recover them.

Benefits

The City of Minneola was sold on Comet Tracker due to ease of use and the security of having a client based solution. They also liked the fact that Actsoft is located in a neighboring city and all their training and support can be done within the same state.

Comet Tracker has enabled the City of Minneola to account for their workers and more closely monitor their vehicles. A recent incident occurred when an employee was parked for two hours at a local retail shopping center in the next town!

The City of Minneola is so pleased with the results, they will be writing an internal policy regarding the solution. This will also allow them to conduct training and add additional features and functionality, specifically “Order Entry” and “Dispatch,” at a later date.