March, 2015
www.us-
tech.com
Growth of Roofing Business Continued from previous page
termination. Management realized that they would have to change any company culture that might have en- couraged texting while driving. Their solution involved implementing the ORIGOSafe® system from ORIGO® in their fleet vehicles. The system
When distracted driving was suspected in
several crashes impacting a roofing company based in Louisiana, the firm’s management decided to become involved.
helped achieve everything they need- ed and helped change the behavior of the vehicle operators. Those opera- tors became safer drivers and better employees, embracing the change for safety. The ORIGOSafe system helps
keep a cell phone out of a driver’s hands while driving and the cell phone screen out of sight. The patent-pending solution requires a driver to dock their cell phone in order to start their vehicle. This igni- tion-interlock system requires a driv- er to insert their cellular smartphone into the docking station prior to starting the vehicle, effectively con- verting the smartphone into a secure password-protected second key for the vehicle. The safety system resembles a
traditional cassette tape deck in de- sign. A driver’s smartphone is con- nected to the ORIGOSafe port and a green light is activated when the ve- hicle can be started. The system charges the smartphone while it is plugged in, but a driver can still an- swer voice calls and conduct a hands- free call with a headset and Blue- tooth wireless technology. However, the capability to send text messages is no longer available since a smart- phone’s touchscreen and keyboard are obscured by the ORIGOSafe sys- tem. The system is simple to install and manage, and provides peace of mind to employers, knowing that their drivers are safe and focused be- hind the wheel. The story of Garcia Roofing is the
story of Gabriel Garcia and his family business. Garcia came to the United States in 1987 following civil strife in his homeland of El Salvador. He bat- tled the language barrier and the typ- ical problems of being an immigrant in a new homeland, and securing em- ployment was difficult in spite of a strong work ethic. In 1992, with a handful of workers, he struck out on his own in Prairieville, LA and earned a gross salary of $60,000 that year. By putting customers first and
offering consistent, high-quality work, Garcia’s company grew 30 per- cent per year for the next four years. By 1996, the company had grown to where professional management was needed to administer its operations. Over the succeeding years, product and service offerings were expanded to serve more customers and fulfill more roofing needs throughout the Baton Rouge, LA area. Roof-replace- ment and sheet-metal divisions were added to the company, along with a sister company focusing exclusively on commercial contracts, Garcia
Garcia Group Safely Drives
Roofing and Sheet Metal, Inc. Since 1992, the Garcia business group has been one of the largest roofing con- tractors in Louisiana, servicing over 1600 customers each year with its 25 employees and 12 fleet vehicles. Gar- cia Roofing installs a variety of shin- gle roofs, slate roofs, Spanish tile roofs, and metal roofs. Growth and success are not al-
ways without problems, however. The availability of wireless smartphones with text-messaging capabilities posed the potential problem of dis- tracted driving for the company’s drivers. Such a problem could erode the company’s success and endanger the firm’s valued employees. But the ORIGOSafe system offered a solution. In the 12 months before the
Garcia business group implemented the ORIGOSafe system, the company suffered more than five fleet vehicle crashes, costing the firm more than $300,000 in property damage, lost time, insurance, and medical costs. Involved employees were disciplined or terminated, unpleasant tasks for any management team. Andrew Goldberg, Residential Team Leader for Garcia Roofing, explains: “Ours is a very socialized business; we’ve been in business for 23 years, and we have 25 employees, outside salesmen working out of the office almost all the time, often spending their entire day on the road. There’s lots of con- tact, and consequently lots of poten- tial distractions.” He observes: “So we became alarmed when we began to experience a few accidents, all of which seemed to happen in one year.”
Although the cause of the acci-
dents wasn’t clear, Garcia manage- ment wanted to eliminate distracted driving as one possible cause. If em- ployees were being distracted by their cell phones, that source of dis- traction had to be mitigated. Accord- ing to Goldberg: “We wanted to do something to change that behavior
right away. But it had to be the right solution.” Upon conferring with com- pany owner, Fred Garcia, Goldberg offers: “Fred and I both realized that education had to be part of it, that we
Page 39
couldn’t just force a solution that would be unacceptable to our em- ployees. That’s when Fred learned about Origo online. It looked right,
Continued on next page
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