How One HVAC Fleet Turned Dashboard Footage Into a Culture of Accountability

Managing a large, busy fleet is no small feat

One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Baton Rouge has been keeping Louisiana homes comfortable for nearly 50 years. As the largest privately owned residential HVAC franchise in the area, they run a 60-vehicle fleet of technician vans and installer trucks across Baton Rouge and the surrounding communities.

Jason Gerard wears a lot of hats, including fleet manager, finance manager, sales manager, and de facto head of all technology for the business. Phones, tablets, internet infrastructure, GPS tracking, dash cams — if it involves a device or a system, it’s probably Jason’s responsibility. 

He came to the role with 20 years of experience as a tower technician for a major cellular carrier, which means he understands what good technology support should look like.

He also knows exactly what bad looks like. And for years, that's what he was dealing with.

Years of frustration with a provider that couldn't keep up

Jason had been trying to leave his previous GPS provider (a major national fleet management company) for years. The problems stacked up over time, including mileage data that was never quite right, equipment that stopped working without warning, and a support team that had essentially become unreachable.

The breaking point came when the provider quietly sunsetted their 3G network, causing Jason to lose visibility on three quarters of his fleet overnight with no warning.

"I woke up and I couldn't see 20 of my 30 trucks,” Jason said. “It took days for them to figure out that all that old equipment was on the network they were shutting off. No one told us."

Getting new equipment installed across a hardwired fleet took 18 months of on-site visits. And even after that ordeal, the problems continued with inaccurate GPS data, billing errors for months after cancellation, and a support team that he wasn’t sure actually existed.

"Anytime I needed to add a vehicle or had a GPS that was bad, it was just absolutely difficult,” Jason said. “You'd end up talking to someone overseas who couldn't help you. It was a mess."

In the end, a partnership between Linxup and the One Hour franchise network made the decision easy.

"I talked to several other franchises that use Linxup, and I was like, you know what — I'm just going to take their advice,” Jason said. “And it worked out good."

Accurate data, finally!

One of Jason's most persistent frustrations with his previous provider was mileage accuracy. Despite being plugged into the OBD port — with direct access to actual odometer data — the system was still creating discrepancies of 500 miles or more per vehicle. 

For a fleet manager trying to track maintenance intervals, that's a real liability.

With Linxup, Jason finally has real data from the vehicle's computer: actual mileage, fuel levels, air pressure, and diagnostic trouble codes.

"I've got vehicles where I can see fuel in the tank, air pressure, trouble codes,” Jason said. “The other company was not providing me with any of that even though we were plugged into the computer in the truck. With Linxup I have full capability to see what's going on."

That accuracy is helping to form the foundation of their maintenance tracking system. He’s using Linxup's maintenance alerts to manage oil change intervals across a fleet where some vehicles are pushing 150,000 miles.

"Having the right guy driving an older van and knowing the maintenance is up on it could mean the difference between keeping that truck on the road or not,” Jason said. “I don't have a dollar figure, but I can assure you we're saving time and money in many different aspects."

Keeping 60 drivers accountable on the road

With 60 technicians driving to residential jobs across a wide service area, driver behavior is one of Jason's biggest daily management challenges. Since adding Linxup's dash cams and driver safety alerts, he's been able to address issues he previously couldn't prove.

In some cases, this creates coaching moments he couldn’t have dreamt of before.

Daily and weekly safety reports flag top speeds, harsh braking, seatbelt violations, and distracted driving. When an alert comes in, Jason reviews the footage and responds directly.

"I texted a guy yesterday — he'd hit 90 miles an hour. I said, dude, where's the fire?” Jason said. “He said he didn't realize he hit 90. I said, well, you obviously were doing 80 something, so you knew you were doing 80 something. Please slow down."

Not every conversation is corrective. When a near-miss alert comes in and the footage shows a driver doing everything right, Jason makes a point of acknowledging it.

"I try to use it in the most positive way I can,” he said. “I'll call a driver and say, hey, you almost had a bad accident — thankfully you were paying attention. I'm glad you weren't looking down or at your phone, because that could have been ugly."

Introducing driver-facing cameras did require some upfront conversations with the team. Privacy concerns came up. Jason addressed them directly, noting that the cameras don't need to record audio, no one is sitting there watching drivers all day, and the footage is only reviewed when an alert triggers a specific event.

"I told them: this is my vehicle. It's a rolling billboard. We have to protect ourselves,” Jason said. “If you think you're doing something you shouldn't be doing, then you may want to clean up whatever bad habits you've got. Because if you keep them up, I'm going to see them."

The conversations weren’t always easy, but the outcome has been a noticeably more accountable fleet.

Geofencing that cleans up the back office too

Beyond driver safety, geofencing has helped One Hour's dispatch team address a reoccurring operational issue where technicians leave jobs without properly logging out in the company's field service platform, ServiceTitan.

Previously, office staff were manually digging through GPS history to verify when a technician left a job site, then trying to reconcile route data with time records to catch drivers who were riding the clock or not communicating job completion. 

With Linxup's geofencing and accurate GPS data, that reconciliation is now far easier and faster.

"The ladies dealing with guys' time and clocking them in and out were having to dig into that every day with the old company,” Jason said. “That visibility through Linxup has really cleaned up that aspect. I can assure you we're saving time and money because we're not having to do as much digging as we used to."

The Coast fuel card integration adds another layer — flagging any situation where a fuel transaction doesn't match a vehicle's GPS location. This helps Jason catch unauthorized fuel purchases before they become a pattern.

Support that actually picks up

After years of dealing with a provider whose support had become virtually unreachable, the experience with Linxup's team has been a breath of fresh air.

Jason worked through an initial onboarding rep and was then transitioned to a dedicated account manager who he cited as deeply knowledgeable and responsive.

"She knows your product in and out,” Jason said. “Rarely did I ask her something and she didn't have the answer immediately. And if she had to get back to me, she was very quick."

For someone who spent years fighting to get basic issues resolved with a massive company and overseas support, Linxup’s US-based customer reps were an enormous benefit.

"I'm glad to be away from them and with a company that has been very communicative and responsive,” Jason said. “I hope to continue having that same experience, and it's been great so far."

What's next

Jason has more he wants to do with the platform. Maintenance automation is next on his list — building out Linxup's maintenance reminder system to replace a manual process that currently requires him to call individual drivers and shops to piece together service history.

With 60 vehicles, some that are aging and high-mileage, getting that system running is a priority.

"I wish I had more time to utilize that side of the house,” Jason said. “It is certainly something that's intriguing. I'm fixing to dive into it soon."