Don’t Let it Rain on Your Parade!
When it comes to running a successful fleet, unexpected rainstorms can really throw a wrench in your plans. The new Roadside Systems Weather Layers can help you finally take control of the skies! Our weather overlay allows you to see rain clouds approaching and adjust your outdoor jobs accordingly. No more getting caught in an unexpected downpour—stay one step ahead and keep your team dry.
Hardwired GPS Tracking Equipment
Roadside Systems clients continue to demand hardwired GPS tracking equipment. In every case of a client moving from a competitor, it has been the only option they have considered. It makes sense – hardwired installations offer several advantages. Here are some key benefits of hardwired GPS tracking systems: Why don’t our competitors focus on hardwired installations? They don’t because they have taken the path to outsourcing their installation almost exclusively to third parties. Then those third parties have been outsourcing the jobs to independent contractors. The work product has been so inconsistent that many vendors have focused on plug-ins to the OBD-II connection and pushed the installation onto the clients. In most cases, plug-ins aren’t the best option for the client. They are the best option for our competitors to not have to employ a qualified installation team!
The King! In Shreveport?
Yes! On a recent install in Louisiana, we stumbled across a fantastic Elvis statue a picked up a little bit of history! Elvis actually had his first big breakthrough playing on a program called the Louisiana Hayride hosted at the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium. He made his performance debut on October 16th, 1954. Elvis was signed to a contract to perform every Saturday night on the Hayride for $20 a show. It is where Colonel Tom Parker first met Elvis and bought his contract for $10,000 dollars after 18 months, We took a look around but sadly, Elvis had left the building.
IFTA- The Four Letter Word of DOT Compliance
IFTA is either a four-letter word or an acronym. We aren’t sure as we were absent from school that day. In the end, the DOT just doesn’t care if it’s a word or any acronym. They just want their numbers-more precisely the correct numbers. Proper fuel tax reporting is possibly the most thankless job in any company with apportioned plating. It’s just no fun. Roadside Systems’ State Mileage/IFTA Report can take away much of the sting. With just a click of a button, you can have all the mileage broken down for all of your vehicles (equipped with a GPS unit of course) by state. We even include a beautiful and completely unnecessary map. It is suitable for framing. Feedback from many clients that use the State Mileage/IFTA report indicates it can cut out as much as 90%(true) of the time that goes into IFTA reporting. We have heard from some of our clients it has increased their job satisfaction by 200%! Well, that may be an exaggeration but it certainly doesn’t make things worse.
Advanced RoMa Usage Nets a Client a Free Lunch!
Advanced RoMa Usage Nets a Client a Free Lunch! A client of ours, we will call him Jim, was in our office last week. In theory, he dropped by for a review of how his company has been using RoMa. In reality, we were all looking for an excuse to have lunch at Rigazzis. (www.rigazzis.com) While we were in our “meeting” Jim showed us how his company had used our geofence features during the consolidation of service areas of multiple companies they acquired over the last few years. In short, Jim’s company drew geofences on the map and looked for the heavy crossover areas. The screenshot is a simulation. They discovered in the process that their service overlaps were more extensive than they originally thought allowing for big potential efficiencies to be realized. We told Jim that clearly, RoMa pays for itself. Jim told us that we were paying for lunch.
The Curious Case of the First Roadside Systems Birmingham Install
As most know, we opened up our Southeastern Headquarters in Birmingham this past year. It has been an exciting time and all is going very well. You can read about a few of our Birmingham adventures in these blog posts (#Southeast). Not many know that oddly our very first Birmingham installs were completed in the Great State of Mississippi. You heard that right Mississippi. Our first Birmingham client was focused on installing tracking on its heavy equipment. They had sent a good portion of the machinery out of state for a large job, and it made sense to want to know where that equipment was! Our client was also looking for engine run time for preventive maintenance and billing purposes. When Director of Operation James Taylor([email protected]) sent us a pic of the first install and said it was a proud day. Later when he said that the team was leaving Mississippi after wrapping up our first Birmingham install it made for a good laugh. Look for us to dress up in Halloween costumes on Valentine’s day this year!
Roadside Systems Meets Little Havana
We were invited and gladly accepted an invitation to a meeting in Miami. The highlight was a trip to Little Havana. We got our picture taken with an iconic patriotic rooster, learned a lot of Cuban-American history, and sampled the local mojitos. Maybe too many mojitos but like they say when in Little Havana…
Fishing Gear?
Does a fishing shirt actually help you catch more fish? It’s a centuries-old debate that has vexed anglers. We really have no idea. We do think our line of Roadside Systems fishing gear is pretty darn cool. If you would like a shirt just fill out the contact info and check the box for – I want a cool looking Roadside Systems fishing shirt. They run pretty close to size.
Sloss Furnaces – from Pig Iron to Music Festival
Centered in the heart of Birmingham (about ten minutes from Roadside Systems Southeast HQ) and a critical part of the city’s history is the Sloss Furnaces. The company operated as a pig iron-producing blast furnace from 1882 to 1971. After closing, it became one of the first industrial sites to be converted for public use and is now an educational center and concert venue ( https://www.slossfurnaces.com/) that has hosted bands including Wilco, Avett Brothers, and Alabama Shakes. Musical Festivals including Sloss Fest and Furnace Fest have called the site him. Sloss is an incredibly unique setting that is worth a visit. Birmingham had the vision to turn an important part of its part into a vibrant part of its future.
What the heck is that?
It’s a peanut roaster. Well, maybe THE peanut roaster. While on a recent trip to the new Roadside Systems offices in Birmingham, AL. We got a chance to sample the wares at the Alabama Peanut Company (https://alabamapeanut.com/). The pictured roaster has been in perpetual use for more than 100 years. Housed in Birmingham’s 1907 “Peanut House” – Alabama Peanut Co. is one of America’s last surviving peanut merchants. They still use the antique roasters original to the peanut business. The place was quite clean so we are confident the roasters have been cleaned thoroughly over the past eleven decades. We left with a three pound bag standard unsalted. They did not last long!
Hello Birmingham!
We opened the doors to the first office in our Southeastern expansion in October. We have set up shop in the Trussville area of Birmingham. We have brought on James Taylor, a Birmingham native, to run the show. We are very, very excited. So now our Southeastern push features an office (complete with desks), a manager, and clients in Birmingham. How cool is that! Clients! Many more details to come. James can be reached pretty much anytime at 205-308-8087. You can email him at [email protected] or [email protected]
Winter Time is Install Time
As we finish out fall and waltz into winter we get really busy around here. Many of our clients take the end of the year to catch up on those to-dos that weren’t done. Frequently that means installing a unit in to the new vehicle that was missed. Sometimes it is just moving a unit from one vehicle in to another vehicle. Any which way it works out great for Roadside Systems (and hopefully our clients) as we always end up installing bunches and bunches of units. Just like our HVAC clients a chill in the air is not so bad for us. We also pick up many new clients this time of year so you are not alone if you’ve been thinking about ditching that no-good GPS vendor that you currently use. Now is the time to change – we will welcome you with open arms! We are staffed to handle the work and look forward to the opportunity to demonstrate that we have our act together. As always we appreciate your business don’t hesitate to contact us. Please call us today at 314-304-7000 or e-mail us at [email protected]
ROMA APPS
In 2016 we released the RoMa App. We had high hopes for its adoption by our clients. We are happy to report our expectation have been exceeded! The RoMa app is now installed and running on thousands of our client’s phones. The app has many useful features including Driver ID, Fuel Management, and Vehicle Inspection. Some of our clients use the app for just one item but more and more are using the app for multiple functions. Some of our clients leverage the power of the RoMa API to transfer the collected information to third party systems. It is all very exciting! If you have a special use case at your company there is a very good chance that the RoMa App may work for your company. We would love to show you what the RoMa App can do for you. As always we appreciate your business, don’t hesitate to contact us. Please call us today at 314-304-7000 or e-mail us at [email protected]
Radio Spot Saluting the Men and Women in the Energy and Service Fields
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