St. Johns County Public Works scales fleet operations with Verizon Connect Reveal

St. Johns County Public Works scales fleet operations with Verizon Connect Reveal

"There's a tree down blocking the coastal highway after the storm!" When calls like this come in to St. Johns County Public Works in northeast Florida, every minute counts. Until recently, responding to these emergencies meant a frustrating series of phone calls and guesswork about which crew and which vehicles were closest to the scene—leaving residents waiting longer for help during critical situations.

The public works department maintains infrastructure across the region, a geographically diverse area including the City of St. Augustine, the nation's oldest European-settled city, and 42 miles of coastline. This sprawling landscape presents significant logistical challenges for managing resources and responding to emergencies. Rocky Agbunag, Information Systems Officer, and Lewis Caudle, Asset Management Coordinator, oversee this operation with a focus on innovation. They manage a fleet of over 1,000 vehicles, ranging from maintenance equipment like trucks and ATVs to bookmobiles.

"I've been in public services for almost 30 years now, and I like being able to provide that service to the community," Agbunag said. His team takes immense pride in serving their region's more than 337,000 residents, with core values of compassion, trustworthiness and innovation guiding every decision.

But tedious manual tracking processes slowed them down. With Agbunag's passion for innovation and technology, he knew there had to be a better way to manage their fleet. "Innovation is really my passion. There's support for it from the county administration all the way down to our managers," he said. With this in mind, Agbunag sought a new fleet management solution that would help speed up response time and deliver on the department's goal of leveraging digital transformation to provide exceptional service.

Inefficient manual data collection delayed response time

Until recently, St. Johns County Public Works used cumbersome manual data collection systems that made near real-time vehicle tracking virtually impossible. This traditional approach wasted resources and prevented a timely response.

"We would rotate every Friday morning," Agbunag recalled, describing how staff members took turns climbing into large trucks to manually retrieve tracking data from each unit. A tedious and risky process that required physically connecting USB devices to download and organize the information. What's more, they could not easily transmit this data in a timely way. The information quickly became outdated, forcing managers to make their best guesses based on obsolete vehicle locations.

When citizens called with concerns about county vehicles, the team struggled to provide accurate answers. "Where's vehicle number 123? I don't know. Who's driving it? I think that's Bob. What's Bob's number? I'm going to call him and see where he is," Agbunag recounted, describing their previous workflow.

The department also struggled with maintenance scheduling and justifying spending to replace vehicles during budget discussions, juggling siloed tracking systems across different departments.

Verizon Connect Reveal provides near real-time fleet visibility

St. Johns County Public Works selected Verizon Connect Reveal to help them modernize their fleet management operations, providing them with near real-time visibility and management of their extensive vehicle network. "Just the name of Verizon obviously is helpful," Agbunag said. "Verizon has pretty well-established coverage throughout the county."

The solution supports 64 users managing 307 vehicles, 89 drivers and 38 assets across multiple departments. Reveal's core features allow the county to monitor vehicle movements and driver behavior, with easy scaling to add new departments and vehicles. Implementation was remarkably efficient. Two Verizon technicians installed about 100 units in just two days.

Recognizing the value of integrated systems, the St. Johns County Public Works team linked Verizon's fleet management solution to their Esri and Cityworks maintenance management system, enabling seamless data sharing across the platforms. "We made that connectivity between the Verizon network and our services here in the county," Agbunag said.

This API integration enables sophisticated data analytics, allowing the team to promptly determine when county vehicles have visited specific roads—critical information for maintenance verification and for responding to citizen inquiries.

GPS fleet tracking improves resource allocation and customer service

Verizon Connect Reveal has transformed operations across St. Johns County Public Works. The solution has significantly improved resource allocation, accountability and transparency, strengthening relationships between departments.

If a citizen calls with a complaint, the team can immediately provide accurate information. "We're able to provide data to that department, showing them where that vehicle is," Caudle explained. This proves valuable when communicating to residents during storms, added Agbunag. "We're able to say, 'Hey, this crew is moving along your neighborhood,' or 'This crew is going to be in your subdivision next,'" he said.

Standardized fleet tracking across departments has helped eliminate silos, reduce costs and improve service. "Resource allocation is a huge advantage of using this system," Agbunag said. "The fleet maintenance team is providing information about the various departments' vehicles and their operation of their fleet."

This information sharing has also dramatically enhanced preventive maintenance compliance. "Since we're providing all this other information to the other departments, they want to do us a solid and get their vehicles in for their preventive maintenance," Caudle said.

This data-driven transparency has fostered greater trust throughout the organization. "I can show them all the data. Ninety-nine percent of everyone is doing the right thing," Caudle said. "It gives the managers a good feeling that their people are doing what they're supposed to be doing out there."

Even the county's library system has benefited, using the tracking system for their bookmobile. "Our library is so happy that now they know where this bookmobile is," Agbunag said.

St. Johns County scales fleet management to improve countywide operations

Building on their success, St. Johns County Public Works is expanding the system. "Our fleet manager's goal is to get all of our vehicles equipped," Agbunag said. "Now we have departments reaching out to Public Works, saying, 'Hey, we want to get on that Verizon contract with y'all,'" Caudle added.

Future plans include implementing driver identification using ID badges and developing more sophisticated tracking capabilities for mowing operations, including monitoring when power take-off systems are engaged during mowing. This will enable St. Johns County Public Works to measure actual cutting time versus total deployment time, so they can more accurately measure and manage productivity and coverage.

What was once a lengthy, manual process of climbing into trucks to download data and making best guesses about vehicle locations has transformed into a swift, data-driven operation that better serves St. Johns County residents—and positions the Public Works department for continued innovation in the years ahead.