Construction industry had a really rough ride throughout this pandemic season and fleet operations has suffered a lot. Although, the construction activity seems to have picked up the pace now, it still needs to rise through the changed landscape ahead, wherein technology can help by trimming costs on the construction fleet operations, mitigating safety risk, while still keeping the projects profitable, notably, most of the Indian EPC majors operate on a net profit margin of as low as 2-4%. The need is evident and should be welcomed!
Fleets in the construction industry are usually made up of mixed and expensive equipment (from ordinary pickup trucks to rather expensive loaders, trenchers, bulldozers, excavators and cranes etc.), and are often demanded to be deployed at quirky times in rough conditions with no compromise in the safety of the involved personnel and vehicles.
In addition to the safety risks that construction site pose to people who work on them, the wide array of vehicles at the construction site can also be subjected to the extreme stresses and dangers if the constructions vehicle activities are not managed and controlled properly. This can further translate to unrepairable damage, delays and unforeseen tolls on your vehicles and the fleet management budget.
Most common issues seen on construction sites:
• Where is my equipment, is it in the right spot?
• Who's using the equipment and how often?
• Which of my equipment are down at the moment?
• Where are all my rented equipment?
• How much does it cost to run my equipment?
• Is the equipment being operated within the standard limits?
• Is fuel being stolen from vehicles?
• Are drivers using the vehicles for their own purpose?
• Do I need to send my equipment for maintenance?
• Do drivers have the essential paperwork to operate the vehicle?
• Am I running it legally and safely?
Doing all of this manually is a far cry in face of a fleet management. By adopting a comprehensive fleet management software, you can address all these problems with ease and improve safety, efficiency and profitability of your business.
Unlocking the benefits:
A Unified view into your operations: In construction Industry, excel spreadsheets and manual tracking has existed for last 40 to 50 years and a fleet management system aims to disrupt exactly that.
You can keep a registrar for your assets that will store everything about your assets.
For example, you can mark which of your vehicles are your own and which ones are on rent/lease. This prevents double booking of an equipment you already have in your lot. If you have vehicles across multiple job-site, knowing which vehicle is where and if rented/leased, allocating/scheduling them appropriately to sites they are needed at in the required time with the maximum productivity and profitability can be achieved quickly only with the help of a fleet management platform. It further tracks down the real-time location of any of your equipment, and the engine data which tells you about the behavior of your equipment engaged in a job, so that you can monitor it, and if this equipment happens to be a rented one, you'd like to pay closest attention to it such as it doesn't get underutilized and you don't end up extending the equipment hire contracts.
Improved Safety: Slips, falls and crashes are common on job sites, In fact one in five workplace fatalities belong to construction sites. Not knowing where your equipment is leads to lengthy and unplanned yard hunts, and adds to safety risk of your workforce working alongside moving machinery. However, if you're on a fleet management platform, you can fetch the real-time location of your fleet within a few clicks. With features like Geofences, Time on Site and Site Analytics, you can determine the exact job-hour of your equipment and get instant notifications on when an equipment enters or exits a site/spot. This avoids the need of intermittent checks on the vehicles to confirm its position in a spot and mitigates the risk of unauthorized use or theft of the vehicle as well.
Increased productivity and profits: Construction work relies heavily on teamwork. And, a digitally connected fleet management system invokes effective communication on just about everything you do with your fleet, among all the stakeholders and the assets involved, providing you the clarity you need across your day-to-day fleet operations, progress, weak-links, and upcoming responsibilities. Construction equipment are not cheap to buy, and if they breakdown due to their use on stressful terrain, or as a result of poor maintenance, then projects can be delayed due to the lack of a particular type of vehicle needed to perform a job. Not missing any scheduled maintenance or say regularly scheduling a maintenance is the key here. You can do so with Service Reminders and Service Entry features. You can also grade the vehicles on the basis of mileage highlighting the ones detrimental to your pocket, monitor the fuel level and combat any unwarranted fuel theft from a vehicle, at standstill or while in-motion.
There's more to it, but all that can't be unpacked here.
Making a Choice: Choosing a fleet management system for your needs might not be as straightforward as it seems. We have created a short guide that might help. How to choose the right fleet management solution?
Want to know more about how fleetx has helped construction companies? No better way than getting a free demo.
