Case Studies

The Town of Apex operates a complex municipal fleet supporting essential public services for a growing community. As Public Works Director John Mullis explains: "What we do in public works affects everyone. We provide yard waste collection, solid waste services. We touch 25,000 households each week with our services."

Fleet Manager Bill Spare oversees 400 vehicles and 230 pieces of equipment that range widely in size, class and use case. "We've got a very diverse fleet ranging in size from class one all the way up to class eight, and that includes everything from police vehicles to light duty trucks, fire trucks, the heavy-duty equipment, excavators, really anything needed to keep a town like ours running."

With rapid population growth, maintaining reliable fleet operations is critical for public safety and resident satisfaction. As Mullis notes: "Our residents have a high expectation on us here in Apex, and they deserve that. And so it's important for us to make sure that we have the right systems in place to provide excellence in service delivery."

Life Before Fleetio

Prior to using Fleetio, the Town of Apex struggled with an unintuitive fleet management system that made data extraction difficult and hindered historical analysis of vehicle performance. The maintenance team operated reactively, often clearing issues without proper documentation, which led to recurring problems going untracked. This lack of visibility into vehicle history and maintenance patterns prevented the town from making informed decisions about their growing fleet and limited their ability to provide proactive maintenance services.

Limited Data Access

"The system we had, it was very difficult to use. It was not intuitive at all. Getting data out of it was very difficult and we just – we struggled with it. It was a fleet management system, but I don't know what fleet would choose to use it." - Adam Kamm, Service Technician

Reactive Maintenance Approach

"Data was hard to read and looking at history on vehicles […] was always super tough. Because we'd rely on the history of the vehicles a lot to see what to do, what not to do, and that kind of thing." - Adam Kamm, Service Technician

Missing Information

"A lot of times, before a vehicle would come in with just, say, something like a check engine light. Somebody would go out there, read the code, it wasn't anything major, so they would just clear the code and it would never be put into the old system as to, 'Hey, this is the code I found, I just cleared it.'" - Adam Kamm, Service Technician

Life With Fleetio + Geotab

With Fleetio, the Town of Apex created an integrated fleet management ecosystem that combines Fleetio's maintenance platform with Geotab telematics and other marketplace partners. This integration provides real-time visibility into vehicle performance and enables data-driven procurement decisions based on historical cost and utilization analysis.

This system has transformed their maintenance approach from reactive to proactive, allowing technicians to identify trends and anticipate service needs before issues become costly problems.

Integrated Technology Platform

"Here at Apex, we've set up an integrated fleet system from telemetry provider Geotab to our fleet maintenance software Fleetio. Those two integrated [also integrate] with other marketplace partners. So not only are we using those two, we have other partners that we work with as well because the architecture infrastructure's in place." - John Mullis, Public Works Director

Data-Driven Decision Making

"Having that data to back up our procurement decisions has been really big for us. In the past, the town really hadn't had a good set of, you know, some good data quality. So now that we've established these devices in the vehicles, we can really make educated and informed decisions." - Bill Spare, Fleet Manager

"Fleetio definitely plays a big role. Not only does Fleetio house all of our data, but it's also where we pull all of our data and generate our reporting. So Fleetio has been integral to the daily workings of our department." Bill Spare, Fleet Manager, Town of Apex

Proactive Maintenance Capabilities

"It makes it easier to see what has been done in the past and maybe see what trends there are into how often something's gonna need to be done. Like either tires or brakes or some kind of routine maintenance that we can kind of see ahead of time now." - Adam Kamm, Service Technician

Impact & Results

Since implementing Fleetio, the Town of Apex has achieved significant operational improvements, including a projected 17% decrease in total cost of operation year over year. The town consistently meets their 80% preventive maintenance (PM) compliance target, ensuring reliable service delivery for emergency and operational vehicles. Most importantly, the data-driven approach enables responsible stewardship of taxpayer funds by identifying cost outliers and optimizing replacement timing, while maintaining the high service standards that Apex residents expect and deserve.

Improved Compliance and Efficiency

"One of our big goals is a minimum of 80% PM on-time compliance. You know, the better that we can service these vehicles and maintain them, ideally they will be less breakdown time in the field." - Bill Spare, Fleet Manager Enhanced Service Delivery

"Having a reliable fleet is really important for the day-to-day operations of our town. We support both police and fire vehicles, so they have vehicles and equipment they rely on to keep our community safe. So it's important that those vehicles are ready to do the jobs that they need 'em to do." - Bill Spare, Fleet Manager

Better Fiscal Responsibility

"With us being a municipality, we are supported by our tax revenue. So it's important that we use those funds responsibly in a fiscally responsible way." - Bill Spare, Fleet Manager

"Just this very week we were looking at our replacements for our next fiscal year, and a lot of our police cars are the same make and model and generally about the same year range. And because of the data that we've been gathering from both Geotab and inputting into Fleetio, we've been able to identify vehicles that are outliers that are costing our fleet more money. So it allows us to target those vehicles for replacement before they can incur any unnecessary costs for the fleet." - Bill Spare, Fleet Manager