David Spence - Senior Director, Quality Assurance, DOT and Safety - TransCor America

After one of the biggest snowstorms in decades hit the Northeast in February 2010 and wreaked havoc on the roads, I realized I needed a better way to forecast weather hardships to ensure safe transport.  The typical weather report covers a range of 75 miles which is just too wide to be useful in real-time route planning and effective weather condition responses.

I asked Zonar if they could help by adding a live weather map overlay so I could see weather conditions over my routes.  Not only did I get an immediate response, I got the enhancement incredibly fast and it has proven to be of huge benefit.  I can't think of another company I've worked with that has been this responsive.

During the next storm, this time it was rain in Texas, we changed departure times and in-route stops, saving 2-3 hours in a typical 8-hour trip, using the Doppler radar map overlay enhancement Zonar provided in its Ground Traffic Control system.  Our drivers really appreciate knowing that we look out for them as weather changes.

I want others to understand how huge this is.  It provides a powerful new way to handle difficult weather conditions safely, in real-time.  We no longer have to scramble when bad weather breaks.

TransCor America: Provides detainee and prisoner transportation services.  The entire fleet is equipped with Zonar's electronic fleet management system.  www.transcor.com

Steve Simmons - Director of Transportation Services - Columbus City Schools

The Columbus City Schools Transportation Call Center receives between 1,100-1,300 telephone calls every school day.  When you consider that their school bus fleet services18,000 bus stops every school day you can start to appreciate the magnitude of the logistical issues faced and questions asked daily.

In the morning, the call center receives calls from parents asking, "where is my bus?" In the afternoon, the calls from parents are about "where is my child?" With Zonar, the whole customer service equation has changed.

Now when parents call, the call center can locate in real-time the bus on its route, determine if and what time a stop was made and adjust pick-up when appropriate.  The vast majority of the time, the route and timing were followed and having that information in real-time changes the dynamics of the call.

The school principals are Transportation Departments' "other" customers alongside parents.  With Zonar the principal has access to up-to-date information on bus arrivals.  Many of the Columbus City Schools principals have chosen to "self-serve" by accessing this information through Zonar because it is accurate and so easy to use. In the event of a delay, the call center is able to alert the principal and ensure the children are not charged with a tardy.

Ensuring the child gets to school is the goal and with Zonar the Transportation Department has more cost-effective options available to achieve its mission.

Columbus City Schools, Transportation: Provides pupil transportation for 31,000 students with a fleet of 764 buses.  They use Zonar EVIR® Pre- and Post-Trip Inspection, K12 HD-GPS and Ground Traffic Control.  www.columbus.k12.oh.us

Louis Andersen - Superintendent - Town of Gilbert

The Town of Gilbert receives 40 to 50 calls a day about missed waste collections. Before Zonar, the Town would automatically send a truck out for a return trip.  With Zonar V2 HD-GPS tracking and analysis, Gilbert was able to identify issues such as certain dead end streets susceptible to being missed and customers who, while reporting being missed, had indeed been picked up but were refilling their containers.

The Solid Waste Department was able to reduce missed collections trips by 50%.  This miles-never-driven achievement resulted in an average savings of $1,600 a day on equipment operating costs and made a positive impact on Gilbert's efforts for going green.

The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) holds an annual truck Road-E-O that starts with regional competitions and includes a pre- and post-trip inspection contest.  The Town of Gilbert attributes its winning streak to Zonar because the kind of inspection Zonar EVIR facilitates has them well prepared.  This top ranking performance doesn't manifest itself just once a year in the competition, but in the everyday inspections that contribute to making a safer highway environment.

Town of Gilbert, Arizona: The Solid Waste Department picks up contained refuse from 62,000 residential and 600 industrial customers.  They have equipped all their trucks including flatbed, roll-off and automatic side loaders with V2 HD-GPS and use Zonar's EVIR for pre- and post-trip inspections.  www.ci.gilbert.az.us

Mike Tilley - Utilities Manager - City of Roseville

The City of Roseville was quick to point out it has experienced three important benefits from implementing Zonar's only-one-of-its kind electronic pre-and-post trip inspections solution - EVIR®.

• Quality: Inspections have improved and there are great records to prove it.
• Maintenance: They are fixing more minor issues and fewer major issues.
• Compliance: The preparation burden for California Highway Patrol Audits has eased.

Zonar has enabled Roseville to intensify its fleet preventive maintenance, which has both saved money and protected the environment through detecting potential hazardous material leaks.  Best of all when a customer calls in with a complaint or issue, the real-time data needed to serve the customer is right at hand.

Zonar's fleet intelligence provided the visibility needed to cut emissions by 50%.  This is a real priority and an important achievement for a city in California which has specific idling laws.

City of Roseville, California: The Environmental Utilities and Solid Waste Department provide residential and commercial refuse service, green waste and recycling services.  They have Zonar-equipped HD-GPS trucks and use Zonar's EVIR for their pre- and post-trip inspections.  www.roseville.ca.us

Hugh Messer - Assistant Division Manager- City of Tacoma

We've benefited from Zonar's V2 HD-GPS solution in several important ways.  First, complaints about street sweepers' activities and potential claims of damage are now being limited by being able to verify the exact time and location of each piece of equipment. It turns out that more often than not, our equipment hasn't been anywhere near the location of the alleged incident.

We are also using Zonar's GPS to "mark," in real-time, the location of catch basins that need cleaning.  This has eliminated the previously used paper-based system.

Zonar GPS data and analysis also led to a totally new discovery: how much time was being lost to lunch.  Because employees involved in sewage work needed adequate hand washing and clean-up facilities before eating, they returned to the city central facility.  This required that the job site be broken down so the truck and employees could return.  It turned out that took a lot of time and consumed a lot fuel.

With the entire team being able to see the economic impact, a new option is in the works.  Mobile trailers are being outfitted as a clean room and lunchroom that will be driven to the work-in-progress sites.  This solution more than pays for itself in time saved.  Think about the miles no longer being driven and the reduced environmental impact.

City of Tacoma, Washington: Surface Water Management, part of Public Works Environmental Services, oversees more than 66,000 surface water accounts and maintains more than 500 miles of public storm water pipe, 22,000-plus catch basins.  They have Zonar-equipped V2 HD-GPS equipment.   www.cityoftacoma.org

John Stump - Equipment Manager - Goodfellow Bros., Inc.

Zonar has designed its solution so that critical and actionable information is immediately transmitted when and to where it is required for action.  This has allowed a set of checks and balances to be put in place using the Zonar "Alert" capabilities so visibility on priority issues can be maintained.

This has resulted in improved operational efficiencies and safety across the entire organization.

• Central Office: Disseminates information, monitors performance, issues Alerts.
• Regional Offices: Reviews Alerts, takes appropriate actions and lowers incident rate.
• Individual: Receives Alerts, reviews timely and specific feedback, instructions and reminders.

The Zonar Alert capabilities have also been used to take the real-time vehicle performance data coming from on-board computers to send an Alert when something is going wrong.  This means a decision can be made to stop a machine before it fails.  The on-board computer can "know" and transmit an Alert to central, regional and local recipients through the Zonar System before the operator even knows.  Goodfellow Bros., Inc., has even sent that same Alert, containing the fault codes, to the local dealer so they determine repair cost.

Goodfellow Bros., Inc. - is a construction company with expertise in large infrastructure projects.  They use state-of-the-art equipment and are based in Wenatchee, Washington with multiple regional offices in the states of Hawaii, Oregon and Washington.  www.goodfellowbros.com

Mike Wirth - Marketing - Otto Companies

For many employees at Otto Trucking, payroll is based on hours worked.  Many aggregate hauling jobs are projects that are out-of-town and last several weeks.  This means equipment and drivers' locations are constantly changing, so time card submissions across distances and on paper presented challenges.

That all changed with Zonar.

When the data Zonar collects from the pre- and post-trip inspection process was combined in Zonar's Ground Traffic Control with Zonar GPS zone in-and-out data, the number of hours worked by drivers was automatically available.  This dramatically changed the payroll process by:

• Know: Hours worked as by-product of "normal course of business" automation.
• Improve: Accuracy by verifying paper time cards with electronic reports.
• Cut: Many man-hours needed to review hundreds of drivers' time cards.
• Eliminate: Location and latency challenges with electronic data verification.

Otto Companies credits Zonar not only with improving their overall efficiencies, but also providing the kind of peace-of-mind that comes from knowing the location of all your equipment at anytime.

Otto Companies: Deployed Zonar's potent combination solution of the EVIR and V2 HD-GPS
Otto Trucking: Mesa, Arizona-based aggregate transport company  www.ottotrucking.com
Otto Logistics: Arizona waste transportation company  www.ottotrucking.com/logistics
Superstition Truck & Trailers: Heavy Truck & Trailer Sales, Parts & Service  www.stlaz.com

Rick Roton - Director of Fleet Operations - PAR Electrical Contractors, Inc.

When Hurricane Ike began moving in on Galveston, Texas, CenterPoint Energy, the primary utility company in Texas, reached out to numerous electrical contractors for support in anticipation of the outages Ike would certainly bring. As it turned out, more than 3 million of the 3.5 million electrical customers in the Galveston area were without power after the storm.

PAR responded to the call, sending more than 640 people and 750 pieces of equipment to help out for 17 days, including the equipment recently equipped with Zonar's HD-GPS system.  Once the work had been completed and power restored, the tedious billing process began.  In the past, after times like these, it was always time-consuming to document which equipment was used, where, and for how long.

After responding to this disaster with equipment that was using Zonar, PAR realized Zonar's short and long-term value:

• The Power to Know: Being able to immediately know which equipment was dispatched, where it was at any given time, and how long it was there.
• Substantiate Billing: Automatic reports generated on the whereabouts and utilization of equipment provided the necessary documentation to support billings and protect the revenue earned.

PAR Electrical Contractors Inc., a Quanta Services Company: Is one of the largest and most respected outside plant electrical contracting companies in North America, specializing in the construction of high-voltage transmission lines, distribution lines and substations, and also storm restoration services. PAR utilizes more than 8,000 pieces of equipment---from air compressors to large road grading cats---at any given time.   www.parelectric.com

Shannon Evans - Bus Operations Coordinator - Clark County Schools

When Zonar first contacted me, I just kept thinking I don't have time for this, and besides, our inspections and supporting processes are just fine.  Thankfully I gave them just 10 minutes and immediately realized that there was room for improvement in our processes and that Zonar's EVIR solution would be able to help us.

Clark County has always been a district interested in new technologies that can help with the efficiencies and safety of operations, so there had been many demonstrations of various technologies over the years.  Yet Zonar really stood out from the crowd.

Not only is the solution simple to install and easy to use, it offers the unique capability of accountability.  I know where my drivers are at any given time; I know where they stopped and when; and I can answer questions regarding inspections or why the bus was late without having to dig through boxes of paperwork.

It's a solution that not only makes my job easier, but protects my drivers by ensuring compliance, and at the same time makes the buses safer for the kids.

Zonar's solution paid for itself in the first year by streamlining processes and reducing the time it took drivers to conduct their inspections.  Before Zonar, drivers needed 40 minutes to perform the required inspections throughout the day.  With Zonar, we save 16 minutes per driver per day; now it only takes them 24 minutes to perform the same inspections.  That's not just a substantial time savings, but also one of cost if you calculate that by 1,300 drivers!

Clark County School District, Nevada: All 1,455 school buses in Clark County are equipped with Zonar's EVIR system and K12 HD-GPS system.  www.ccsd.net