Who They Are & What They Do
PTR Premier Truck Rental (PTR) started as a small rental company, with just a couple of trucks and, gradually over the years, expanded to thousands of vehicles in their rental fleet. Today, PTR services critical industries nationwide like construction, pipeline, power transmission, renewables, as well as just general customers that need a rental truck for a set period of time.
Not only they have custom equipment and add-on to outfit your truck rental, they also have unique vehicles like Fat Truck that set them apart from the competition.
Jordan Burke from PTR explains with a smile: “Fat Truck is new to our fleet. They are a fully amphibious vehicle that can go on any terrain and take you anywhere you might need to go. The most common use is in the power transmission industry. They use this vehicle for exploration, when they need to go out to a job site and when they’re looking at putting a new transmission line in. This truck will take them anywhere they need to go, through any terrain to get there to lay out the job and any obstacle that’s in its path, it’s no problem for this thing.”
Craig Carroll from PTR adds, “Fat Truck fits into our product offerings because we service a lot of utility, transmission and distribution companies. A lot of them are off the grid when they service a transmission line or a tower. This thing can get them there if it’s flooded – it’ll float right through it. If it’s muddy, this thing will get traction and make it there.”
What They Were Looking For
Since PTR is a rental company and have many different clients nationwide, they needed to be able to provide certain tracking and locating capabilities to their customers who are using their equipment and vehicles, as well as for themselves to be able to monitor the wear and tear of their rented assets.
JB: “We teamed up with Fleet Complete for better tracking. It’s more accurate and gives us more information to help our customers.”
CC: “For fleet tracking, we used a competitor before and weren’t getting the results. We definitely needed to find a solution that was all-encompassing, and that can tell us if there’re any service errors on any vehicles, check engine light, and so on. That’s where Fleet Complete came in.”
“Since we rent our trucks, we’re not the end-user. Fleet Complete was able to modify their system to work with us so that both our customers can use Fleet Complete, and we can also use Fleet Complete. That’s where we really loved Fleet Complete compared to the competitor.”
“We use our own unit numbers, and Fleet Complete allows us to rename our vehicles so we can easily search them based on the unit numbers within our ERP system. It allows our team members to easily find any unit on demand.”
“We get reports when there’s a field service issue. When there’s a unit that breaks down in the field, we can see exactly where it’s at, and we can quickly get somebody out there, if needed. Or we can point them to the nearest service center. It gets them back on the road quicker.”
Rollout Experience & Implementation
CC: “During the rollout, we started with a couple of customers at first, and then we expanded to our whole fleet. We didn’t have any downtime, so everything was smooth and we did not have any issues. It looks very modern, very well done, intuitive, easy to use.”
“From customer service to developers, who were working together with our developers to develop the API that integrates right into our system, Fleet Complete has been fabulous and by far superior to any competitor.”
JB: “The rollout process was easy. All we had to do was install the GPS units in the trucks, and our insurance coordinator, who handles the Fleet Complete platform, she enters all the information into the system and then can track all the units for us.”
“We do it by the unit number, so if we ever need a reference that unit in the future, we can just type in the unit number on Fleet Complete’s web app and pull up all the information we need for it.”
“The software is very advanced from what I’ve used. Navigating through Fleet Complete online is very easy: You just type in your unit information, it pulls it for us, and we’re able to get whatever we need from it.”
Benefits Of Using Fleet Tracking Software
PTR sees many measurable results post-implementation – from controlling excessive idling to stolen vehicle recovery to improved customer service and maintenance of their fleet.
Locating
JB: “I see it as a valuable asset to our business because we can provide better customer service to our clients when we can locate a vehicle for them. In my department, when a truck breaks down in the field, we can pinpoint it and see where it’s at.”
“Certain areas of West Texas, where directions don’t get you anywhere, we need an actual location. We can pull latitude and longitude, give that to the tow company, and they can get the vehicle moved to a dealer.”
Idling & Maintenance
“When I use Fleet Complete and when my team members use it, it’s easy for us to pull diagnostic codes, current mileage, idle hours. In our fleet, idle hours is a big concern that we watch a lot, because idle hours have an effect on overall wear and tear of the motor.”
“We get a report when a unit has a lot of idle time on it. We pull that report and then we can reach out to the customer and say, “Hey, this unit is idling a lot. You might want to check with your crew why is it idling so much.””
“Another measurable benefit for us would be service intervals. That’s a big thing. When we can get on and track the mileage since the last service… We actually use it for tires too, because we can replay certain trips in certain terrains. We can use the Breadcrumb Trail feature: We can go back and see what kind of terrain they’re driving on – if they’re driving on roadways that are heavy stone and have excess wear on the tires, we can see all that through the reporting feature.”
CC: “For maintenance tracking, we do a lot of mileage and Fleet Complete helps us with odometer readings. There comes a point where, in our fleet, we have to retire vehicles, so the unit is sent to auction and the odometer reading lets us know when that time is perfect. It’s always good to keep an eye on that.”
Recovering Stolen Vehicles
CC: “We’ve had occasions where some trucks have been stolen, and we were able to recover them with the use of Fleet Complete.”
JB: “A couple of months ago, we had a unit that was stolen. The customer called me directly and said, “Hey, my truck just got stolen. Can you locate it for me?””
“I was able to go on Fleet Complete and locate the vehicle. It was already parked at an apartment complex, and we called the authorities. The authorities wanted to know where the unit was. I gave them the address. I said – it’s at this apartment complex, fourth parking spot on the left. And when the law enforcement showed up, it was sitting there.”
Customer Service
CC: “Our customers know that a tracking device is there and it’s always on. Many people like to use it to see where their units are, if there is any downtime – why is the unit sitting there for so long. They want to keep their fleet moving. We also like to let them know if something has been sitting for a while, so we can, if need be, offer them a better solution.”
JB: “We’re actually looking at integrating BigRoad for our own fleet that we use to transport vehicles for us from our yards to the job – for the state line miles and all the IFTA paperwork logging. All that is done through BigRoad and that saves us a lot of headaches. That’s also a possibility for our customers that we could roll that out to them if they’re using us for Fleet Complete on heavier duty stuff so that they could do the IFTA through it.”
