How to Track Assets More Efficiently

From heavy equipment to vehicles to power tools, contractors are keeping better track of their assets with fleet management software from Telogis, a Verizon company.

"We all have a tremendous amount of capital invested in our assets," says Dee Burch, CEO of Advanced American Construction in Portland, Oregon, a member of the Oregon-Columbia Chapter of AGC and AGC of Washington. "Having a cloud-based, real-time ability to understand how they are being utilized and their locations is invaluable. That’s the payoff."

Advanced American implemented Telogis, based in Aliso Viejo, California, several years ago and depends on it for managing its fleet of equipment, cranes, barges, boon trucks and vehicles. The software identifies where each asset is located, the need for maintenance, and the piece of equipment’s usage and utilization to ensure it justifies the investment in the machinery.

"It’s an important part of our business and something we rely on and have found to be useful," Burch says. "Our main focus is on location and utilization."

Assets often can be moved around if a contractor knows where something needed is located. Burch can quickly move equipment around, rather than purchasing or renting additional equipment. That saves on costs.

Telogis standardizes reports to focus on value points for the construction industry. Those include driver or operator behavior, maintenance and up time, equipment utilization, safe operations and fuel efficiency, says Jeff Cohen, vice president of asset and security solutions for Telogis.

Telogis can monitor driver or operator behavior. When an operator or driver enters the equipment or vehicle, he or she will sign into the Telogis mobile app. It alerts management when that person starts working or when management can start billing a customer for the machinery working at that jobsite.

The software will alert management if the driver frequently exceeds the speed limit, repeatedly brakes hard, idles for long periods or drives a vehicle during off hours.

"We take one event a step further, and look at the driver over time to get a trend," Cohen says. "Whatever data we gather, we can turn into results."

Although Advanced American does not focus on driver/operator behavior, Burch has noticed improvements in employee performance.

"It is well known in the company that there is a record of where a vehicle is and what it is being used for," Burch says. "That has a big impact on behavior with the vehicles and minimizing use of our assets for personal use."

The software also offers theft protection on large and small equipment. Metrics for tools focus on the item’s availability and where it is located.

When a company knows what asset class is causing the most problems, it can start monitoring that class. Then it can add other assets to the system as time goes on.

"The biggest advantage is we are horizontal enough to deal with large enterprises and vertical enough to know what each industry is looking for," Cohen says. "We allow companies to grow with us."

Telogis offers a wide range of pricing depending on the needs of the customer and the number of vehicles and assets included in the software package.

Monthly software packages start at $29 a month per truck and can be bundled with other hardware and Telogis offerings, depending on the specific needs of a company’s fleet