When it comes to managing your fleets, knowledge is power. The more you know about each of your assets – where they physically are at all times, when and how long they’re in use, and how much they cost to operate – the better you can manage operations and impact your bottom line.
A telematics-enabled data platform puts this critical information at your fingertips. Equipment outfitted with sensors can stream location and usage data to your key stakeholders so they can have a clear, complete picture view of your asset status to make better deployment decisions and more efficiently run your business.
To get a bit more granular, there are many specific benefits to asset tracking software. At ASCEND, our asset management software can bring many of these benefits to your company.
Asset Tracking Benefits
Eliminating time locating unaccounted-for equipment. For reasons including safety, liability, work planning, and estimating costs, ASCEND's asset tracking solution makes it possible to create custom reports that identify where your equipment is located, how far it travels, and when it enters or exits account-defined geofences.
Reducing employee theft and accidental loss. Another important reason to be able to track the whereabouts of your assets and equipment is to guard against equipment theft or preventable loss. Additionally, making it known that your equipment is outfitted with location sensors can further serve to deter misappropriation or misuse of your equipment.
Improving scheduling and resource management. It’s difficult, if not downright impossible, to estimate job costing if you don’t know exactly where your equipment is, when it will be available, and how far it will have to be moved to be on-site when it’s needed. The geofences you can define in the ASCEND geofence software enables you to create reliable reports about your vehicles and other assets so you can stay on top of your fleet activity and make better planning decisions.
Preventing hoarding of equipment. Hoarding equipment shouldn’t be a problem, yet it is all too commonplace. Knowing a piece of equipment that will be needed on a job in the days ahead is available now and fearing that it might be deployed elsewhere at the time it is needed can lead crews to commandeer equipment they don’t need right now so they will have it when they do.
When this happens, it produces inefficiencies and often leads to poor customer service. It can also prevent you from getting the full use and value out of your most coveted pieces of equipment. When these assets are tracked, and their location is always known, this hoarding activity can be prevented.
Why Asset Tracking is Important - It Pays to Know
Of course, as in all aspects of telematics technology and the accessibility and flow of information within your organization, the most compelling reasons to track your assets are related to costs. Your equipment makes your company money, and when you don’t know exactly where every piece is or when they are available, your ability to contain costs and increase profits is hampered.
That is the greatest benefit of all to asset tracking.