Your fleet is your construction company’s biggest asset. You want to keep your employees (and equipment) safe. You’re also looking for ways to improve productivity and efficiency. This is where fleet management and construction fleet tracking come in.
A fleet management solution can go beyond safety to boost your company’s bottom line.
With always-on tracking, a fleet management solution can help you keep tabs on your equipment and your people. That real-time knowledge can prevent thefts, improve customer service, boost efficiency, and smooth out logistics.
Here’s how construction companies are using fleet management solutions to improve their overall efficiency, productivity, and financials.
Track equipment and prevent theft
Replacing your equipment isn’t cheap, if you can even find a replacement amidst today’s supply chain woes. Every year, between $300 million and $1 billion in construction equipment is stolen from job sites. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, less than 20% of that stolen equipment is ever recovered. One study found that wheeled and tracked loaders are the most common theft targets, followed closely by towables.
Technology can help. Motive’s GPS-based fleet tracking and geofence warnings can send real-time alerts when your equipment is unexpectedly moved or used. Configure these parameters directly on a map, then specify certain time periods (say, outside of working hours) to be notified of potentially problematic use.
Motive uses an Asset Gateway device that’s attached to your equipment, with a powerful battery life that ensures continuous operation, even on remote job sites.
And if your equipment is ever stolen, Motive will continue to track your asset’s location, helping you work with local authorities for timely recovery.
View the precise locations of every asset and driver
Know when your teams are on schedule and easily notify job sites of expected arrival times.
The same geofence alerts that detect theft can also help you proactively notify your customers with your driver’s expected arrival time. Real-time tracking and geofence alerts can also tell you when your equipment enters (or exits) a site.
With these details, you can track arrivals, departures, and next destinations. That empowers you to give customers an accurate ETA so they’re ready for your arrival.
Improve cycle times and utilization
Know where your assets are with construction fleet tracking, and ensure you’re prepared to use them right away to reduce detention times and improve efficiency.
With Mohawk Materials’ previous construction fleet management solution, equipment locations were only updated every 30 minutes. But Mohawk couldn’t afford to wait 30 minutes when making and delivering their high-quality concrete. Mohawk switched to Motive, and today, plant managers can track inbound vehicles to ensure the outbound load is ready to go.
Wes Beck, Logistics Coordinator at Mohawk, explains, “Before, my plant managers would have to call to ask where the truck is and would have to wait 30 minutes for the next refresh to give an update. Now they don’t have to call me at all. They can check right on their phones and find out in seconds.” Real-time visibility has saved Mohawk thousands per year by improving efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Read: Drive success in construction fleet management.
Dispatch faster and more efficiently
Similarly, real-time location tracking can help you find the nearest driver, share documents, and message drivers to coordinate just-in-time deliveries. When a customer calls, dispatchers can use Motive’s Fleet View to instantly identify all available vehicles, drivers, and assets near a location, with estimated travel time and distance. They can even view HOS status to avoid dispatching drivers nearing their daily limit.
Dispatchers can attach related documents or details to the job, directly in the Motive app. After a driver is assigned, the dispatcher can continue to track their location and provide an accurate ETA to the customer. Streamlining these logistics helps ensure that the driver and the customer are prepared for the job, further improving efficiency.
As Chad Goodrich, Service Administrator for Equipment Corporation of America explains, “Motive has changed the way we work. Now we can see all our drivers, vehicles, and equipment, in one place– saving us time from checking files or multiple calls.”
That coordination helps ECA’s 16 technicians arrive on site ready to problem solve. ECA’s Corporate Director of Parts and Services Dave Schell notes that his technicians can even log hours of service right in the Motive Driver App. This helps them get to work as soon as they arrive on site. He explains, “Technicians show up to a job site where a $4 million piece of equipment is not working, costing the job $5,000 per hour if that machine’s not working. The last thing the customer wants to see is their tech recording his time instead of being on that site to fix their problems. The customer perception of what our employees are doing is important.”
Motive’s construction fleet tracking solution
Construction companies using Motive’s AI-powered fleet management solutions get real-time construction fleet tracking that helps prevent thefts, view equipment locations, improve cycle times, and streamline dispatching. Contact Motive today to learn how your fleet can boost productivity, efficiency, and safety.
