With summer driving season upon us, the upward price of fuel is as predictable as ants at a picnic. For companies that have fleets of service vehicles this is always a concern. Management has the unenviable task of keeping the fuel budget in check during upward seasonal fluctuations while maintaining a consistent level of customer service. The scheduled “milk-run” truck rolls to remote customer sites are unavoidable, but there is a smarter way to deal with those unscheduled service dispatches that eat away at fuel budgets and erode profits.

It is not cost effective or desirable to require physical visits to remotely located routers, switches or other network devices for troubleshooting or maintenance. Costs are prohibitive, both in time and personnel, for a skilled technician to be dispatched to the remote site for administration and maintenance of every remotely located router, switch or other network device. Time and cost constraints necessitate that network devices be managed remotely.

Keeping vehicles tuned up and conservative driving practices are well and good, but best-in-class service and maintenance businesses are more likely to keep the truck in park than their competitors. These organizations consistently employ remote site management tools to diagnose and fix problematic equipment instead of rolling a truck to a site. A remote AC power controller allows maintenance technicians to reboot, cut or re-establish power to devices located in a remote location, all over a standard telephone phone line or an internet connection. Field technicians can control power to equipment from their cell phones, avoiding the cost and time to drive to remote sites.

Nine out of ten service dispatches involve rebooting (power fail) equipment as a first try fix. With a remote power control switch and a telephone, the three hour round trip at midnight can be avoided. And a tank of gas was just saved.

Multi-Link has helped many IT Departments, Managed Network Services and ISP’s save fuel, time, and labor costs with our remote power controllers. Call us and see if we can help you reduce fuel costs with your phone. 800-535-4651