Wilhelm LLC Integrates Samsara and Whip Around to Curb Its Fleet Management Bottlenecks

Wilhelm LLC, a Petaluma, California-based company, has 20 years of expertise and has kept the public safe through disaster prevention. We spoke with Wilhelm’s Inventory Control Specialist, Jacob Brewster, to learn more about their work. “We are a tree-trimming company hired to trim branches away from electric lines to avoid fires and to remove trees to stop further damage. Multiple workers collaborate in the field while utilizing our vehicles to move to and from job sites and operate the equipment mounted to our trucks to do the task.”

With 486 cars and 366 drivers working for Wilhelm alone, maintaining their fleet and allocating resources has proven difficult. Therefore, something had to change in its fleet management process.

Company Background and Operations

Over their 20+ years of operations, Wilhelm and its team of qualified employees have helped utility companies prevent fires by maintaining vegetation under control around power lines and providing disaster recovery services following destructive wildfires.

Wilhelm is the top option for disaster prevention and recovery for commercial, governmental, and utility entities across the United States. This company has skilled team members ready to respond to any maintenance, recovery, or restoration assignment.

Wilhelm has successfully completed hundreds of missions in land clearing, right-of-way clearing, reducing wood waste, and recovering from the storm and fire-related disasters. 

Wilhelm’s Challenges: Tracking Inefficiencies and Fleet Management Bottlenecks

Before Samsara and Whip Around, Jacob talks about how the team frequently had to make repairs to its fleet and struggled to keep track of them. “We were having problems keeping track of our assets and the services or repairs done to them before integrating Samsara and Whip Around,” says Jacob.

Even though its disaster prevention operations had achieved remarkable results, Wilhelm looks to develop a more efficient, long-lasting approach for its fleet management team to track assets and preserve a record of the servicing and repairs carried out on them. Wilhelm saw an opportunity to manage its expanding fleet of disaster response vehicles using cutting-edge, industry-grade fleet management software platforms.

In the past, the company’s asset repair and service operations didn’t have effective communication. There were inefficiencies and problems with inspections. Indeed, some parts of the process were still running on outdated systems that required a lot of paperwork and duplication.

After considering several alternatives, Wilhelm decided on Samsara and Whip Around as their fleet management software platform. They looked for a fleet management software vendor to assist their fleet since they didn’t want to deal with the difficulties of adopting fleet management using outdated technologies.

One of Wilhelm’s top priorities was finding a platform that would do more than merely replace their outdated systems. To help the development of long-term strategies and generate the most value, they were looking for a platform that could offer strategic insight, fleet data, and monitoring. To help them manage their fleet, Wilhelm collaborated with Samsara and Whip Around.

Samsara’s and Whip Around’s Solution for Wilhelm: An Integrated Fleet Management Software Management Platform

Working with both Samsara’s and Whip Around’s platforms proved effective and changed the team’s perspective on fleet management. “Keeping track of our everyday work and the assets themselves has become hassle-free once Samsara and Whip Around were integrated,” admits Jacob.

Today, Wilhelm uses Samsara to track its fleet and monitor their use to ensure that they give its exceptional team a safe working environment. Wilhelm’s crew has more control over what happens on the job site and in their vehicles thanks to Samsara’s dashboard. Thus, allowing them to be more proactive and alert to strange behavior. Wilhelm’s team can now monitor their activities in ways they have never done before, such as proactively detecting risk indicators or looking for accidents to use as teaching opportunities for safety procedures.

With Whip Around, Jacob tells us that they are now much more capable of keeping track of vehicle repairs, services, and safety inspections for law compliance. “Whip Around is the tool we use to keep track of the repairs and maintenance our technicians do on our assets. Every morning, our drivers conduct inspections to provide input on the condition of each asset and any problems they observe while performing a walk-around.”

The Impact on Wilhelm: Improved Communication, Better Inventory Tracking, and Improved Fleet Maintenance

Wilhelm’s team has seen several advantages after using Samsara and Whip Around platforms. Jacob described these advantages to us.

Improved Communication in Wilhelm’s Staff

The culture at Wilhelm has improved, particularly in how drivers, technicians, and other employees spend their time. Thanks to Whip Around, Wilhelm’s drivers can quickly inform the mechanics when anything on their vehicles requires maintenance or repair. “Since the integration, we have noticed an improvement in the flow of communication between our fleet’s employees and the operators of our assets,” explains Jacob. 

“Our ability to communicate with our fleet employees and operators is getting better. This has had a significant influence on keeping up with daily inspections and tracking the condition of certain assets, such as tires, brakes, fluid levels, engine and transmission health, or other crucial components of each unit.”

Improved Understanding of Inventory Management

Wilhelm benefits from having digital pre-trip inspections available for use in inventory control. The business can now determine the supplies required for each unit using Whip Around and receive alerts when supplies run low. 

“We now have a better grasp of the inventory requirements for our units. Whip Around’s inventory section allows us to bolster the supplies used by our fleet and to keep track of any shortages so that we can have our essential supplies on hand,” Jacob explains.

Overall Fleet Maintenance Efficiency

Since integrating the two platforms, the company has streamlined its fleet maintenance processes. The team has seen a reduction in preparation time for their technicians’ car services after using Whip Around. They print out work orders with a list of activities and parts required to complete each job. They then update them through the system. “In this approach, we can have a discussion both before and after repairs and maintenance so that our fleet crew is fully aware of the circumstances around the fleet of assets, “Jacob explains.

Whip Around Your Fleet Management

Besides integrating Samsara’s and Whip Around’s platforms, Jacob recommends that other companies consider using these cutting-edge technologies. It takes the hassle out of fleet management and inventory monitoring. “Compared to other systems I have used at prior employment, I feel as though I have had a much simpler time keeping track of our assets’ health and condition in the field using Whip Around and Samsara integrations. I would suggest both to other businesses.”

Are you facing similar issues when it comes to fleet management and inventory tracking? Consider scheduling a demo to see firsthand how Whip Around can significantly improve productivity immediately.