Benson Systems mitigates risk with Verizon Connect

Benson Systems mitigates risk with Verizon Connect 

Benson Systems knows a thing or two about safety. Founded in 1986 by Shawn Benson as a low-voltage security and high-voltage electrical business, the company now provides high-quality security and fire and life safety systems to a broad range of customers. Organizations as diverse as warehouse operators, schools, healthcare providers, and military and government agencies rely on Benson Systems to design, install, service and maintain their most critical building systems.

But who keeps this family-owned Arizona firm's staff safe on the road? That's the job of Dave Powell, Quality Assurance and Safety Director at Benson Systems.

"We consider company vehicles to be the biggest fringe benefit that any technician or employee receives," he said. "It's the largest and most important tool other than your own body or mind and It's also one of the costliest."

To better manage these costs, enhance employee accountability and promote safety, Powell turned to a trusted partner for fleet management.

Liability and cost challenges drove a need for change

With dozens of pickups and cars to manage, Powell had a challenge. The company's engineers and supervisors travel to 10-12 sites per day to service, inspect, test, and maintain client systems. That means a lot of hours on the road.

For Powell, mitigating liability when one of his team members was involved in an accident was a big motivator for change. In fact, it was the "number one push" for updating the company's fleet management system with cameras.

Powell was also concerned about customer service and whether technicians were providing accurate information about their arrival time at clients' premises. He wanted better visibility into when his technicians were showing up for appointments, as some were taking advantage by claiming they were with a customer earlier than they were, which negatively impacted customer satisfaction.

"I need to keep an eagle eye on these guys as I am in the office only two or three days a week if I'm lucky," he said. "The managers who are direct supervisors to these guys, they're on this every day."

Costs were another driver for change. Alongside high insurance premiums, fuel costs, and maintenance expenses, technicians' habits such as eating, drinking and smoking in their vehicles contributed to high cleaning fees.

A seamless journey to optimized fleet management

Benson Systems has been a satisfied Verizon customer for over 20 years, including long-standing use of the Verizon Networkfleet GPS tracking solution. So when Powell set out to update the company's fleet management capabilities, Verizon Connect was an obvious choice. The solution offered Powell advanced tracking with customizable dashboards via the app. AI-powered dashcams alert Powell to any technician or vehicle incidents that need attention.

The journey to the current setup was "seamless," Powell said. "We started with GPS that had to be hardwired into the vehicles, and now we've got the VDDs, which are plug-and-play," he explained. "When we switched over, it literally took me 20 minutes to put the mobile version on my cell phone and reassign VDDs from vehicle to vehicle. It really is dummy-proof."

Benson Systems now has approximately 47 active VDDs across its fleet, which are managed and monitored by Powell and a select group of company managers. This enables Powell and his team to maintain a "30,000-foot view" of the entire fleet and its drivers, with the ability to step in if they notice something that doesn't look right. The solution also provides Powell with better visibility on where technicians are at any given time, so they know if they are on time for an appointment and can also reroute them to respond quickly to service calls.

Verizon Connect helps reduce liability

The visibility, control and cost savings that Powell sought all came to fruition with Verizon Connect, as Benson Systems achieved reduced liability, improved safety and lower costs.

Powell's primary driver for investing in Verizon Connect was to mitigate liability when technicians are involved in accidents through no fault of their own. This has helped to keep costs down and the company out of legal jeopardy.

"Normally, if you rear-end somebody, at the very least, you get a ticket from a law enforcement agency for failure to control a vehicle to avoid an accident," explained Powell. "But in a recent case, not only was Benson Systems not cited, but the person who got hit was cited with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle. So, because of the camera, the GPS and the notifications, it didn't cost us anything."

Importantly, driver safety has also improved. The system not only alerts the drivers when there is a risk, but also sends a message back to the manager. The most dramatic success came when the dashcam alerted a fatigued driver who was about to crash.

"I love these cameras. They talk. I had a technician head from the Phoenix area down to Tucson at three in the morning," Powell explained. "He fell asleep at the wheel, and the camera said 'tiredness detected,' and it woke him up just as he was veering off the side of the road. It saved his life. The cameras and the AI are invaluable to Benson Systems."

To further enhance safety, Powell has activated a "governor" feature to keep vehicle speed below 85 mph and set up the system to flag when drivers exceed a specific speed limit. This feature has helped Benson Systems reduce harsh driving and speeding alerts by about 50%.

"It has definitely improved the driving habits of my entire fleet," said Powell. "Technicians know they're being watched through AI. They know that they're being monitored, so they are less likely to drive recklessly," he added.

Technicians are also taking more responsibility for their vehicle's upkeep, because the system detects when they're smoking, vaping or eating at the wheel. "That's less I have to clean up, because I do like technicians taking personal ownership of their vehicles," said Powell.

Keeping costs under control while improving customer satisfaction

The fleet management system has also enabled Powell and his team to enhance customer service while managing costs more effectively.

Customer satisfaction has benefited from improved timekeeping and visibility, helping Powell know where his drivers are at any given time. With near-real-time visibility, the team can reroute engineers already on the road to the nearest jobs, getting them to the customer faster and in a more fuel-efficient manner. "If we get a service call we can look and see who is closest to that customer and reroute as necessary," said Powell. "It's about customer satisfaction because we pride ourselves in all of our installations and services on being where we are supposed to be at the exact time or earlier."

Cost savings are a bonus. Verizon Connect has helped Benson Systems reduce their insurance premiums by an estimated 15-20%. And when it comes to maintenance, the system is smart enough to streamline operations and expedite repairs by issuing Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs). Each vehicle's On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) system generates these engine fault codes and can help troubleshoot issues.

"That saves so much time. When I have a technician in New Mexico, and I get a DTC code, I can tell him to go to this mechanic and get that figured out, as opposed to him driving a vehicle that's got an engine light on," Powell explained. "It saves me in maintenance because I can address it immediately."

On the road to success

Powell and his team are looking forward to expanding their use of the fleet management system even further. He plans to conduct more proactive maintenance inspections using Verizon Connect and make greater use of the coaching function, which utilizes vehicle data and insights to help personalize driver coaching. "What keeps me with Verizon is competitive pricing and customer service. No one has customer relations like Verizon," Powell concluded. "I am the unpaid sales guy for Verizon. I tell anybody and everybody: 'Just go with Verizon.'"