Security companies that operate their own fleet need a key system that records who uses each vehicle without depending on someone remembering to do it. With night shifts and a growing fleet, that control becomes a job of its own.
For a security company, every patrol vehicle represents a key to hand out, locate and recover. When shifts last 12 hours and employees go home to sleep afterwards, finding a key that did not turn up where it should have can take hours.
For a long time the method was the same: keys in a box or on a counter, with a tag to identify each vehicle. While the fleet is small, the system works. As the fleet grows, time is lost, there is no history to consult, and it becomes impossible to know who has what.
That is the situation Patrick Nalon found as Fleet Manager at Signal of Tampa, the Signal franchise in Tampa, Florida, which provides security services.
Today the team manages 36 vehicles with Keycafe.
A fleet that grew faster than its key system
Patrick has been in the role for about five and a half years. When he started, the fleet had 14 vehicles. Today it has 36, with one more vehicle just ordered and two others expected in a couple of months. The Fleet Manager position exists because the franchise owner wanted to bring order to an area that was not being handled properly, and one of the first measures was to introduce a key management system.
The starting point was a simple one:
“When I first started, keys were just in a box. And when you don't have many vehicles, then that's maybe acceptable.”
The setup, however, offered no control. Keys were kept in a box or left on a counter, with tags that the team pressed itself using each vehicle's number:
“There was no accountability. You didn't know who had what. Sometimes employees take keys home, or keys get lost.”
Traceability: knowing who had each key and when
The most frequent problem was tied to working hours. Most officers work from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. and go home to sleep at the end of the shift, so when a key was missing, someone had to contact them to ask about it:
“It was all the time. We were having to contact them to say, "Hey, where's the keys for this particular vehicle? Do you have them?" Track them down, and maybe even the next day before we got them back.”
With Keycafe, that search comes down to a single lookup:
“I can look at the website and see exactly who had it, what time, and then it's a little bit easier to find out who's got what.”
Every pickup and return is now tied to an identified user, so there is no need to ask each employee. The team also keeps a primary set of keys and a spare set for each vehicle, and both are stored in the system.
A right-sized system for a mid-sized fleet
Before choosing, Patrick attended trade shows for fleet managers and researched the options on the market. He found that many systems were sized around the volumes of a large car dealership, with pricing to match. What he needed was a system that matched a mid-sized fleet, and Keycafe's modular approach fit: a base unit with expansion units that add compartments as the fleet grows, so capacity scales in controlled steps instead of requiring a large cabinet from day one:
“A lot of it was price. We're not a big car dealership, we don't need that level. [...] This was the right size for us.”
After narrowing the list to a couple of options, a Keycafe demonstration settled the decision, and the system was shipped directly to the team.
Their current installation consists of a main unit with nine compartments and a second unit with 42, and it can be expanded with more modules if the fleet keeps growing. Other Signal franchises regularly ask him how the company manages its fleet and onboards staff, and Patrick has recommended Keycafe to them.
Remote administration, with PINs as the access method
Asked about his favorite feature, Patrick pointed to the Keycafe dashboard he uses to manage the system:
“I carry a laptop all the time, and I really like the website. It's very user friendly.”
From the dashboard he enters vehicle numbers and adds new employees, and he recently onboarded three people this way. To identify themselves at the unit, employees use the fuel PIN they already have:
“We use their fuel PINs. They're like a bank PIN number. [...] They don't have to remember two numbers.”
He also receives a notification each time someone takes or returns a key. The unit is close to his office, so he can hear when someone is using it. But even when he’s off site or in another room, the real-time alerts keep him up to date.
Easy staff adoption and customer support
As with any process change, there was some resistance at first, but it faded quickly:
“It's so much better that they realized it, and they use it every day.”
On support, Patrick highlighted a positive relationship with the Keycafe team, both during the initial demonstration and through ongoing help:
“They get back to me on questions I have, and they'll provide some other tips and things.”
Because Tampa is in a hurricane zone, he also mentioned the unit's backup battery as a point in its favor during power outages.
Time saved and vehicles kept in service
For Patrick, the main benefit is time. Because the spare set is stored in the system alongside the primary set, vehicles can keep operating while a key is being located, and the website shows who last had it.
“It's always more time saved than having to have a locksmith come out or somebody replace a $300 key fob.”
Asked what he would tell another company still managing keys with a box or a sheet, his answer was direct:
“Tell them to call me directly. [...] If they were doing it with a box, and they had a lot of cars, this would be the answer for them, for sure.”
Signal of Tampa's experience offers several lessons for any organization with a growing fleet:
Replace the box or the counter with a connected system that identifies each user.
Consult the history instead of contacting each employee when a key is missing.
Choose a system sized to the fleet, with room to expand.
Use a PIN that employees already know, so they do not have to remember another one.
Keep a spare set for each vehicle so that a misplaced key does not stop operations.
Train staff on how to place keys in the compartments correctly.
Talk to our team to see how other fleet operators replaced boxes and sign-out sheets with a complete history of every key.
