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Matt Brett

4 Ways to Improve the Management of Your Construction Fleet

The adage about business is that time is money. But when it comes to construction fleets, your vehicles and assets are money, too. And how you manage the various pieces that make up your fleet can mean the difference between money-losing jobs and profitability.

In this respect, the value of a telematics solution – one that is designed for construction mixed fleets – can hardly be underestimated. The rich fleet data that can provide invaluable insights and actionable intelligence is what fuels better decision making. Telematics makes it possible for you to access, aggregate, view, share, and use that data to manage your fleet more effectively and more profitably.

There are many ways construction fleet management software can improve your fleet. Here are four of the most important:

  • 1. Utilization reporting. Some pieces of heavy construction equipment can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase. To see a return on that huge investment, they need to be in use to generate revenue. Effective fleet management isn’t just about making sure your most expensive assets are being optimally utilized, however, but about ensuring all your vehicles and assets are used as needed.

    A telematics system makes tracking fleet utilization easy by enabling you to create and share reports that show the activity of your entire fleet and shine a light on potential issues with assets being under- or over-utilized.

  • 2. Fleet analytics. Telematics also makes it possible for you to literally get under the hood to monitor vehicle and asset performance. You can gather and monitor engine data, including RPMs, fuel efficiency, battery voltage, and more. Looking at vehicle and fleet analytics can help you with everything from managing fuel efficiency to monitoring driver safety to determining when service is needed – all important information for effective fleet management.

  • 3. Employing the right hardware. One of the most important variables in construction fleet management is the telematics hardware installed on vehicles and assets. Different assets will require different types of hardware, depending upon your data. And then there is the ability to install devices across your entire mixed fleet, including on assets you might not have considered like smaller, valuable equipment.

    The more assets you have tracked, the more complete the picture of your fleet. And the more precise your telematics provider is in matching each asset to application-specific hardware, the better. The right telematics provider will offer the right mix of hardware and ensure that all units are sufficiently rugged to stand up to the demands of a construction worksite. The provider also will have the expertise to connect all the hardware into a single telematics platform, for a fleet management solution with an indispensable single view of your fleet.

  • 4. Jobsite reporting. To manage costs and maximize profits you need to be able to track the use of vehicles and assets at each jobsite. With the GPS tracking and geofencing capabilities built into many telematics solutions, you can get a highly accurate picture of where and when your assets were utilized. This data helps improve invoice accuracy and provides benchmark data you can use when estimating future jobs.

Get the Right Fit for Construction

While these all represent big benefits of telematics, keep in mind that not all telematics solutions are created equal. While some solutions are great fit for, say, a transportation or service company, they may not be the right fit for construction.

But if you do your homework and get the right industry-ready construction fleet management solution, the chances are high that you’ll wonder how you ever managed your fleet without it.

 

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