Malin improves fleet effeciency with the AirLink PinPoint X

Malin is one of the largest authorized Raymond electric forklift dealerships serving the states of Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi and parts of northern Mexico. Malin provides new and used forklift sales and rentals, parts and repair service.

Challenges

With the rising cost of gas, Malin wanted to observe their fleet in order to improve routing efficiency and optimize schedules for field service engineers. To accomplish this, the company decided to add global positioning system (GPS) tracking capabilities to its fleet of service vehicles.

While evaluating automatic vehicle location (AVL) solutions, Malin was introduced to OnTerra Systems, offering an integrated location solution with mapping software and GPS tracking devices. Malin selected the Sierra Wireless AirLink™ PinPoint X to provide them with a progressive tracking solution that would grow with their fleet.

Solution

OnTerra Systems, with the assistance of Wireless Mobile Data, a Sierra Wireless Value Added Reseller (VAR) complete integration and installation of the AirLink PinPoint X gateways.  AirLink PinPoint units were installed in vehicles over the course of a month and a half at nine different office locations. Malin currently has about 150 PinPoint modems deployed in their entire service fleet, as well as in several parts trucks and a delivery semi-truck.

The Remote Application Protocol (RAP) embedded in ALEOS enabled seamless integration for
Onterra to deploy their application on the PinPoint modems. Furthermore, the PinPoint modem’s Store-and-Forward feature also prevents loss of GPS data due to coverage drops, relieving Malin’s concern about losing data when traveling into the lower coverage areas of Mexico and northern Louisiana.

“Our tracking system provides precise, objective data on the daily progress of our service engineers, which encourages them to pay closer attention to the amount of time they spend on each job.” Explained Gavin Rick, IT director at Malin.

Malin’s AVL solution using OnTerra System’s FleetTracker 2.0 and the Sierra Wireless AirLink PinPoint X resulted in:

• Reduced gas costs and service engineer payroll expenses
• Decreased internal operational expenses and improved efficiencies
• Improved customer service by enabling Malin to view truck locations at all times and provide accurate arrival estimates to waiting customers.
• Cost savings and improved field service efficiency