In many discussions about fleet management, off-road vehicles and equipment are often somehow forgotten. While some fleet companies may be concerned only with trucks, cars, vans, and the like, many more need to track large equipment too.
Off-road lights, construction equipment, storage crates, generators, and all sorts of equipment found in your off-road warehouse can benefit significantly from the same type of tracking that cars and trucks have enjoyed for years. So what’s the best way to monitor your off-road equipment? We’ll explore three methods that may be suited for your fleet and style of management.
The Paper Method
Paper tracking was the most common method of tracking all sorts of equipment long ago. It works like this:
- You have a clipboard or a logbook in your office somewhere.
- It has pages for each piece of equipment.
- Each time a piece of equipment moves, the logbook is updated manually.
- When you want to know where a piece of equipment is, you go to its page on the clipboard or logbook and see where the last move took it.
The problem here is that sometimes busy employees forget to log movements. Sometimes their handwriting is challenging to decipher. Sometimes equipment gets logged incorrectly or plans change after an action is recorded. And what happens when someone misplaces the logbook or spills coffee on it? Obviously, there needs to be a better way.
The Barcode Scanner Method
One solution is the barcode scanner method of equipment tracking. Here’s how it works:
- Each piece of equipment gets a barcode.
- Each equipment storage location gets a scanner.
- When an employee takes a piece of equipment away from its storage, they scan the barcode, showing it has moved.
- When they return the equipment, they scan it back in.
- In between scans, that employee is responsible for knowing where the equipment is and ensuring that it gets returned.
This method has solved some of the problems from the paper method, but others remain. Employees may still forget to scan out or scan in equipment. Some may use the equipment in unauthorized ways, which quickly becomes problematic.
The GPS Tracker Method
Finally, we have the off-road GPS tracker method for monitoring vehicles and large equipment. In this method, a GPS tracking device attaches to each piece of equipment. The tracker then pings off of satellites regularly, showing precisely where workers can find the equipment. The tracker works independently of employee behaviors or habits and can even alert you in the case of theft or unauthorized use.
GPS solves the problems of human error and corruption in a way manual methods can’t. But it also does so much more. In addition to telling you where each piece of equipment is, a GPS tracker can generate telematics data. You can then use this data to track maintenance schedules, monitor and track utilization, improve logistics, lower insurance premiums, and prevent theft or unauthorized use.
GPS trackers are either powered by the equipment they’re tracking, or battery-powered with long-life charges that last for years. They’re perfect for monitoring everything from cranes and backhoes to off-road trailers and fuel storage tanks.
Want to learn more about how to track your best off-road vehicles with the power of GPS and telematics? Contact Azuga today.
