3 Ways to Improve Your Field Service Sustainability Now

Think about the number of vehicles you have in your field service business. On average, how many customers do you service on site everyday? Then consider how much time your mobile team spends on the road in bad weather and heavy traffic — increasing fuel consumption, carbon emissions, and infrastructure wear. This all impacts field service sustainability.

As a field service leader, preserving the environment is important to both you and your customers. You’re not alone. Consider these stats from EY: 40% of consumers will make all purchasing decisions to support a more sustainable future. And 32% are willing to pay more for more sustainable goods and services. 

Field service sustainability is about using resources more efficiently to reduce both costs and environmental footprint at the same time. With the right field service management software, you can make a difference to the Earth. Let’s look at how route optimization, asset management powered by AI, and visual remote assistance can help set you up for success.

What you’ll learn:

• What is field service sustainability?
• Why is field service sustainability important?
• How technology can improve your field service sustainability
• How to go green with field service sustainability

What is field service sustainability?

At a high level, field service sustainability simply means managing resources effectively to reduce the environmental impact of your business. A nice bonus: this usually equates to cost savings, too. Today, AI and automation can help you drive more cost-effective use of your resources. (Back to top)

Why is field service sustainability important?

As the world grapples with environmental crises, from global warming to extreme weather events, we all have a role to play in reducing our impact on the planet. While some jobs can be taken care of with visual remote assistance, others need to be solved in person. Since field service still involves trucks on the road, fuel consumption, and carbon emissions, now is the time for the industry to do more to minimize its impact on the environment. (Back to top)

How technology can improve your field service sustainability

The good news is that advances in field service management technology have made it possible to more easily and effectively steward your resources. Here are three ways.

1. Route optimization

Fuel consumption is one of the biggest challenges to field service sustainability. After all, mobile workers spend a considerable amount of time traveling to perform services at different customer locations. Investing in more energy-efficient vehicles is a step in the right direction, but that’s only one thing you can do.

Route optimization, the process of planning the fastest and most cost-effective way for your mobile workers to get from one appointment to another, is a great way to improve field service sustainability. With route optimization, your employees or contractors, with the right skills and parts, always take the most efficient route. This saves on gas, reduces emissions, and limits impact on the road — contributing to field service sustainability while also lowering costs. Plus: on-time, complete service can boost customer satisfaction scores. 

2. Intelligent asset management powered by AI

Asset service management is a critical component of field service. It’s a system to manage physical assets – equipment, machinery, vehicles, and tools that require maintenance, repairs, and inspections. Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence (AI), you can move from a reactive, break-fix model to proactive, intelligent asset service management powered by AI.  

With enough data, AI can use patterns to forecast the future. It can detect when an asset needs service, or even forecast when it is likely to fail. AI can recommend preventative maintenance, or equipment replacement, so that failure never happens. This means that you can manage your resources more effectively, and even extend asset service lives. Our research found that 71% of manufacturers rated asset uptime as their most important KPI. 

AI also streamlines processes and supports field service sustainability as technicians perform maintenance. Errors in estimating travel, service time, and parts needed can wreck a day’s schedule and necessitate another appointment. These inefficiencies increase the carbon footprint as they add up over time. This has an irreversible impact on the environment.

AI takes distances, traffic patterns, weather, and more into account to predict how long it will take a mobile worker to drive to a job. It can also estimate how long a job will take based on the history of similar tasks in the past. Generative AI can project the tools and parts a job is likely to require, reducing the need for a second trip. 

Many companies are using AI to improve efficiency. Ryder System, Inc., a leading logistics and transportation company, is one of them. 

“With AI, we’re exploring opportunities for transforming our team productivity. We’re enhancing our capabilities to drive efficiency, including reducing our appointment times, enhancing decision-making, and creating a new horizon of operational excellence,” said Rob Pluta, Chief Technology Officer and VP of New Products, Ryder System, Inc.

3. Visual remote assistance

Not all service requests require on-site appointments. In these cases, agents, mobile workers, and experts can use visual remote assistance to guide customers to solve problems in real-time from anywhere. 

Visual remote assistance eliminates or reduces time spent on the road. Fewer truck rolls means less emissions and wear and tear on roads. Reducing truck rolls even a fraction can go a long way toward protecting the environment and infrastructure.

Our research found that among field service professionals who work for distributors and manufacturers, improving visibility into asset availability, reliability, and performance was a priority. We learned that 44% percent of field service pros would most value this capability, when compared among eight asset-centric capabilities.  

To increase visibility into hard-to-reach assets, some companies are now using drones to perform remote inspections. For example, drones can inspect wind turbines by taking thousands of photos of each asset. AI can learn to recognize problems in the drone images, and then serve up suggested repairs. Field technicians only need to visit assets that require maintenance, saving trips on the road. (Back to top)

How to go green in field service

As you look to improve sustainability in your business with field service management, now is the time to get buy-in from stakeholders. As companies set sustainability targets, they’re increasingly asking partners to help them meet these goals. In fact, IDC¹ Research found that by 2026, 60% of large organizations will require a carbon neutrality strategy as a standard part of enterprise technology procurements and RFPs. 

Worldwide, 64% of consumers report high levels of concern about sustainability. Customers want to team with companies who are working toward Net Zero carbon footprints. Their collective thinking is: It’s good for the Earth and for business. Field service sustainability is a step in the right direction. (Back to top)

¹ Source: IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Sustainability/ESG 2024 Predictions, October 2023