When you install telematics devices onto your plant equipment, you have great plans to improve your efficiency…you collect all this valuable data, but what do you do next? How do you access that information? What are the actual benefits of using telematics devices on your equipment?
 
Telematics are frequently used so that your fleet managers can see how, where and when machines are being used. But of course, knowing where your equipment is and what times it is active is only the tip of the iceberg. From ensuring your client and employee safety, to increasing efficiency and reducing the risk of plant theft, there’s so much more to be had with telematics. 

Employee & Customer Safety
There’s a reason why car insurance companies have started using telematics boxes for young drivers and that’s because there’s an incentive to drive safely and carefully. The same goes for your fleet operators. With telematics installed on your fleet, you can collect data on driver behaviour, which will help you prevent incidents and improve operator safety. If you have an operator that is persistently making poor decisions on site, you can nip it in the bud before any accidents happen. 

Plant and construction equipment, if not used correctly, can be incredibly dangerous. You want to minimise the risk to your clients that use your equipment and telematics is absolutely the answer. With telematics, you’ll have accurate usage data on mileage or hours used so that your equipment is always serviced on time. You’ll be able to identify equipment problems and errors that need to be resolved and some telematics providers can even alert you when equipment is being incorrectly used. This means you can help your customers prevent on site accidents and keep your clients and your equipment safe. 

Stolen plant recovery
Knowing where your assets are improves asset efficiency, but also adds an extra layer of security to your plant machinery. Plant theft costs the UK around £1,000,000 every week, with 90% of stolen vehicles never being recovered*1. With telematics solutions in place, you can be alerted the minute one of your assets has left its permitted location. As you can imagine, this makes it much easier and faster for the stolen plant to be tracked down, reducing insurance claims and uninsured losses. 

Increasing fleet efficiency
Keeping your assets running and in good condition is important for any business. Telematics can help support your equipment maintenance scheduling with, odometer reports and usage alerts. This helps you to make sure your machines are serviced on schedule, which saves you money and reduces equipment downtime. 

Telematics data enables you to diagnose problems with your connected equipment remotely and automatically assign the job to the nearest, best equipped engineer on the road so that you can fix it first time – keeping your equipment healthy and your clients happy.


MCS, the rental software specialist, has developed its latest solution for the hire industry: the MCS Telematics Hub. Already with telematics integrations including Enigma, JCB LiveLink, Trackunit, CanTrack, Pinpoint, Allsetra, Teletrac Navman, AMI, JobWatch, Bomag, Qwiktrack and many more in the pipeline, find out how the hub can bring all your useful telematics data together and make the most out of your information. 

References:
*1 Home Office Security Guidance Document for Agricultural and Construction Plant