CASE STUDY
How Montgomery Homes Saved 12 Hours Weekly by Automating Fleet Management with Vehicle Tracking Dashboard
AT A GLANCE
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Client: Montgomery Homes
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Industry: Construction & Real Estate
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Location: NSW, Australia
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Solution: Vehicle Tracking & Field Operations Dashboard
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Key Impact: 15% efficiency improvement, $1,500/month savings
Background
Montgomery Homes, one of NSW's leading residential builders, manages construction projects across multiple sites from Newcastle to Sydney. With over 30 field supervisors traveling between active job sites, hardware stores, and regional offices daily, the company faced a common construction fleet management challenge: knowing where their teams were and whether they were spending time effectively.
The company had invested in GPS vehicle tracking through YouTrac, which provided fleet tracking data for their fleet. However, the system only generated raw tracking logs that required extensive manual processing to extract meaningful field operations insights.
The Challenge
Montgomery's operations team spent 10 to 12 hours every week processing vehicle tracking data. The workflow was inefficient and error-prone. Each week, they received zipped tracking logs from YouTrac via email. Staff then used Excel macros to classify each stop, attempting to determine whether supervisors were visiting construction sites, hardware stores, or office locations. The final output was basic PDF reports that provided minimal insights and lacked consistency.
This manual process made it difficult to evaluate team performance or optimize fleet management construction schedules. By the time management received reports, the data was already outdated. The company couldn't identify patterns such as which job sites were being under-visited, which supervisors were caught in peak traffic regularly, or how time was being allocated across different job phases.
Without real-time GPS tracking, Montgomery couldn't make data-driven decisions about field service operations. Supervisors might be spending excessive time in traffic without anyone knowing. Job sites could go days without visits. Hardware store runs might be inefficiently planned. All these inefficiencies were hidden in weekly Excel files that nobody had time to analyze properly.
The Solution
GrowthBI built an automated Power BI dashboard that connected directly to the YouTrac API, transforming Montgomery's vehicle fleet tracking from a weekly manual task into real-time business intelligence. The solution used Azure Data Factory for API ingestion, SQL Server for transformation and logic modeling, and Power BI for construction visualization. Power Automate handled scheduled report delivery.
The system automatically classified every GPS location into meaningful categories. Using spatial distance calculations (within 300 meters), it identified whether supervisors were at job sites, offices, hardware stores, or in transit. The fleet management dashboard introduced several key capabilities:
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Timeline Visualization: Each supervisor's daily activities were displayed chronologically with traffic peak shading, showing exactly when they were driving versus on-site. This immediately revealed inefficient route optimization patterns during congested periods.
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Performance Rankings: A point-based system scored supervisors on multiple factors: working 40+ hours, visiting assigned job sites, and avoiding peak-hour driving. This created transparency around field productivity metrics.
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Map View Integration: Geographic visualization showed all supervisor movements across NSW, making it easy to identify under-visited sites and optimize fleet route planning.
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Weekly Summary Metrics: Automated calculations of total hours worked, driving hours and distance, site visit counts and duration by job type, all compared against previous weeks to show fleet analytics trends.
Results
The transformation eliminated the 10 to 12 hours of manual work previously required each week. The system now runs automatically, providing real-time insights without any manual intervention.
Supervisor efficiency improved by 15% through better route planning and schedule optimization. The company could now quickly allocate vehicles and teams based on actual location data rather than assumptions. Peak-hour driving inefficiencies were identified and addressed, saving supervisors significant time daily.
Key performance outcomes included:
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100% reduction in manual reporting effort (6 days per month saved)
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15% improvement in field supervisor productivity
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$15,000 monthly savings in operational expenses from reduced fuel wastage and idle trips
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Real-time visibility into construction fleet operations via API integration
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Automated insights into under-visited job sites and peak-hour inefficiencies
The Power BI vehicle tracking dashboard revealed time allocation trends across job phases that were previously invisible. Management could now see exactly which construction, maintenance, and hardware visits were consuming time, enabling better resource planning. The system provided enhanced accountability across construction, maintenance, and management teams.
Looking Forward
Montgomery Homes now uses the fleet management solution for weekly performance reviews and daily operational decisions. The ranking system has created healthy competition among supervisors while sharing best practices for route optimization.
The success of this Power BI case study implementation has led Montgomery to explore similar automation for other operational areas. With real-time visibility into field operations dashboard, the company has moved from reactive to proactive management of their mobile workforce.
Want to see the technical details behind this implementation? Read our technical deep-dive to learn how we integrated YouTrac API with Power BI using Azure Data Factory.