Along with the challenge of contending with service techs who were initially reluctant to switch vehicles, there were numerous other hurdles to surmount as well. For instance, the Transit Connect is manufactured in Turkey, while Ford’s upfitter of choice is located in Baltimore. “Bringing the product in provided challenges, such as how do we place orders, ensuring we have enough allocation, and organizing with multiple suppliers including our graphics company,” Wade says.

All of the preparation and careful attention to detail has led to a successful transition to date. Since deploying the more fuel-efficient Transit Connect, ADT has realized annual savings of more than $6 million per year in operating costs. The company also expects to reduce its carbon emissions by 40% (or 20,000 metric tons), as well as achieve a 20% reduction in preventable accidents.

“This has been one of the most rewarding projects. Not only do you save your own company money and help save the environment, but also help one of the American staple companies, such as Ford, produce a new vehicle that was largely used in European markets,” Wade says.

Tracking Driver Data With Telematics

In addition to overhauling its fleet, ADT also implemented a telematics solution. This portion of the transformational plan has resulted in increased driver productivity and the ability to further limit afterhours or unauthorized vehicle use.

Some of the challenges ADT faced instituting its telematics program were simply justifying the deployment of the new technology on a fleet of 7,000 vehicles, creating an overarching strategy around workforce assimilation and management, and controlling and managing the new information the technology makes available.

To carry out the telematics program, key stakeholders in the company collaborated to conduct a series of planning meetings on how to best to adopt the technology, knowing there was a significant “change management challenge” in executing the deployment, Wade explains. “We had more than 50 leaders across HR, finance, operations, operational excellence, customer experience, fleet, and strategic consulting who were instrumental in laying out the roadmap for this technology.”

Tyco’s Vince Valentin, vice president of service delivery, agrees that adding telematics was an integral piece to the overall fleet transformation. 

“Telematics not only provides dispatching optimization functionality, it also facilitates significant fuel usage reduction by identifying speeding incidents, aggressive driving, and idling,” he says. “The associated behavior modifications resulting from leveraging telematics will translate into our broader efforts to be greener companies and into improved driver safety, which, in turn, will result in fewer accidents.”

According to Mark Smith, strategic consulting manager for GE Capital Fleet Services, a
critical element to the success of this type of program is a strong working relationship among team members from the different organizations. “It can’t be the traditional supplier/vendor relationship, because these initiatives take a tremendous amount of involvement,” he says.

Standardizing Fleet Operations

With its reorganization expected to be completed by the end of September, Tyco’s main focus will be to continue consolidating strategic opportunities in the security and fire/life-safety markets, says Ken Foster, director of Tyco’s North American fleet operations. A tightly managed fleet operation will be central to successfully servicing the company’s wide range of end-user customers.

“We’re looking at leveraging our size with each [independent company], so as we move into the future, we’ve already consolidated our overall fleet with one [FMC],” he says. 

Foster doesn’t foresee the upcoming split as presenting any significant challenges largely because the residential and commercial businesses operate as one entity today, even though they are separate departments. As for the fleet operation, it will maintain the same type of consolidated structure moving forward.

“We’ll have the same business model and really continue to leverage the strategic things we’ve already put in place, such as telematics and working with [GE Capital Fleet Services],” Foster says. “We’ve done a great job managing the fleets, so as we move forward and segment the fleets out, the challenge is more on paper than anything.”

No small notion, however, is the need to modify the company’s fleet vehicle branding. In this endeavor, Foster’s foremost goal has been to minimize disruption and downtime with field technicians. “We’re doing a mass reidentification of the vehicles on the weekends and at night, so that we aren’t interrupting our business flow,” he says.

Lauren Fletcher is a Managing Editor for Bobit Business Media’s Auto Group trade publications. She can be contacted at [email protected].

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