You rely on your equipment and vehicles for your construction business to function—but are they adequately protected? If anything is damaged or stolen, it not only means expensive repairs or replacements: your productivity and the safety of your team is also at risk. Tracking software should be your first line of defense in protecting your assets.
The data collected via telematics can help you gain insight into how your equipment is being used, as well as its real-time location—from large machines and vehicles, down to expensive generators and tools.
This not only helps you better manage your inventory: tracking will also better enable you to discover efficiencies that will improve your business.
Why Asset Management is Important in the Construction Industry
Work-critical equipment is notoriously expensive in this industry, and proper management is essential if you’re going to protect your bottom line. However, beyond the equipment itself, asset management can also protect you against other kinds of waste, including underutilization, downtime, and unauthorized usage.
Here are three ways GPS tracking software can help you measure vital metrics and protect your business against waste:
1. Location Tracking
Once you’ve fitted devices to your key assets, you’ll be able to track them at the click of a button. After inputting your designated worksite perimeter and normal usage hours, you can receive real-time alerts if your assets are used.
GPS tracking software can also act as a stolen vehicle or other asset recovery device, helping you recover lost or stolen items quickly and easily.
2. Asset Monitoring
With real-time asset tracking, you can measure your end-of-day inventory and usage, and improve visibility with real-time alerts. Checking this data regularly can help you catch issues early before they become bigger problems. Some asset trackers even include motion sensors that can detect changes in light, humidity, and temperature and then trigger a warning to notify you before equipment damage occurs.
3. Workload Management
Asset tracking software can help you streamline your operations too. Use your data to better allocate incoming work across nearby, available assets. You can also retrospectively analyze operations and discover cost-saving opportunities with timestamped reports.
To learn more about how BigRoad’s solutions can help your business, request a meeting with one of our solutions experts today!
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How Fleet Management Tools Prevent Accidents
Technology can help you monitor and provide feedback on your drivers’ and operators’ performance, as well as ensure the safety of both your team and your assets. Most construction industry incidents are attributed to what’s known as ‘The Fatal Four’, which includes falls, electrocutions, being caught in or between an object, and being hit by an object.
These injuries can occur on the construction site, but also when employees are handling equipment and simply driving on the road.
In fact, some of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s most commonly violated safety standards in the construction industry involve powered industrial trucks and unsafe materials handling. Add dangerous driving and mechanical failure to the mix and the risks soon add up.
Not every accident is avoidable, but the vast majority of them are. Mike Wright, director of health, safety & environment at the United Steelworkers union, told The Guardian: “They’re all preventable. I’ve seen a lot of fatalities where you walk in and you think: ‘I can’t believe this didn’t happen 10 years ago.’”
Safety is important not just to protect people. An accident or injury is bad for business too and could incur significant costs from downtime, delays, equipment damage, and insurance cost increases.
With BigRoad – a Fleet Complete Company’s Personal Tracker, you get sensor readings, location tracking, and emergency response alerts. It also delivers full visibility into the well-being of your mobile in-field staff—as well as your assets themselves.
Better Asset Management Means Bigger Savings
Poor asset management leads to unnecessary wear and tear on your equipment, which is both costly and could see assets spending more time in the repair shop than on the job site.
For example, vehicle tracking promotes better driving practices through data-led training, careful driver monitoring, and encouraging adherence to regular fleet inspections. This leads to drivers treating vehicles with more care, thus reducing vehicle wear and tear.
Some insurance providers will even offer discounts for installing GPS fleet management software as it makes it easier to record incidents and locate stolen vehicles or equipment.
BigRoad also has services designed specifically for construction fleets—including power take-off sensors, which help you monitor trailer doors, crane arm movement, and bulldozer power take-off readings. This gives you complete operative control over your assets and their usage as well as your team’s safety.
What to Look for in an Asset Tracking Solution
No two businesses are the same. Similarly, not all asset protection programs are created equally. When choosing your technology, there are a few things to bear in mind:
- Choose a device that can easily integrate with your current assets, including equipment and tools
- Make sure the software can be tailored to your exact requirements
- Ensure the device meets your coverage requirements. Some use satellite networks, while others rely on LTE-M or 3G
- Choose a provider who is able to offer the level of support you require, including long-term after-sales support
As well as making sure the software fully meets your needs, it’s important to choose technology that’s easily installed, user-friendly, and is set up by a professionally trained installation team.
Installing software that fully meets your needs will minimize disruption and give you a clearer picture of your fleet’s performance, including issues that could lead to an incident.
Visit our Asset Tracking Software for Construction page
How BigRoad – a Fleet Complete company help:
- Monitor where your equipment is with GPS tracking
- Track and retrieve assets fast, in case of theft
- View all staff on one map and stay updated on activities and jobs completed throughout the day on your mobile device or desktop computer
- Identify how often assets are being used to keep track of inventory and optimize the number of assets or equipment you actually need
- Avoid unnecessary expenses with better maintenance scheduling
With BigRoad’s Fleet Tracker and Asset Tracker solutions, you can digitally manage your inventory, set up POIs, and track your assets in real-time. If you want to add visibility, protection, and efficiencies, whilst ensuring staff safety, learn more by requesting a demo below.
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