Xora and Sprint Save City of Chicago $3M

"We now have a visual representation of CDOT field activities, as they happen, that simply was not possible before Xora GPS TimeTrack™ was implemented. The combination of new procedures for field operations management and Xora GPS TimeTrack has been a significant improvement in response times to 311 requests and a savings to the city of more than $3M for pothole-related incidents alone. Generally speaking, CDOT field staff is more accountable, efficient and productive, and managers are making decisions faster and more accurately, thanks to Xora."

— Brian Steele, spokesperson for the City of Chicago Department of Transportation


BACKGROUND
The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) is responsible for city street, alley, sidewalk curb and gutter construction; bridge maintenance; public way inspections; signs and pavement markings; planter and median maintenance; bicycle and pedestrian programs; and ground transportation planning. Several dozens CDOT office and field staff respond daily to service requests that come in through the city’s 311 non-emergency services center. CDOT would like to improve customer service; reduce liabilities; and gain better insight into their field workers’ daily activities and locations.

SITUATION
In 2007, CDOT responded to 39,203 service requests, up from 24,157 in 2006. Faced with the increased volume of citizens calling 311, CDOT needed a more efficient solution for managing field staff. The primary method of tracking and dispatching field staff was calling their cell phones or waiting for them to return to the office. CDOT did not have a way of locating field staff and had difficulty responding quickly to 311 calls.

SOLUTION
As part of operations reorganization, CDOT began using GPS TimeTrack, a software application that runs on GPS-enabled mobile phones carried by 480 CDOT foremen and more than 80 consultants, who use the application to record timesheet and job status information from the field. Meanwhile, office staff can access web-based maps and business reports that show the locations and job activities of field staff throughout the day.

In addition to using the Shift Start and Shift End functions, CDOT hot-asphalt workers are using the “Job Start” and “Job End” to indicate when they arrive at and depart from the job. CDOT now knows precisely how long it is taking each team to load and unload their trucks. They are also piloting a project that will allow public way inspectors to record the specific task they are
performing and what is the task’s outcome.

RESULTS
Since deploying GPS TimeTrack, CDOT has dramatically improved customer service by responding to 311 requests more quickly. For example, the number of days to respond to citizen calls to fill potholes has been reduced from 20 days to 3 days. As a result, the city has seen its liability costs for pothole-related incidents reduced from $4M to $600K.