Few plant operators are using tracking to protect their assets, finds survey.
A survey of UK construction and plant hire companies carried out last month by comparison website TrackCompare.co.uk, in association with Construction Manager, showed that just 15% used telematics systems on their wheeled or tracked onsite vehicles.
Telematics systems are offered by companies such as Fleetmatics, Tracker, Navman and Sattrak. They can help plant owners improve security by satellite tracking stolen equipment, and monitoring usage patterns and fuel consumption.
The survey of 320 businesses – 232 construction firms and 88 plant hire companies – found only 15% overall used a tracking or telematics services on their onsite plant, although this rose to 40% of the plant hire companies.
The survey sample operated a range of onsite and on-road vehicles, including diggers, cranes, loaders, skip lorries, cement mixers, excavators and piling vehicles.
The survey also asked respondents if they tracked their on-road vehicles, and here there was higher take-up of the technology, with 52% tracking vans, lorries and HGVs.
The survey also found little appetite for adopting tracking systems: just 9% plan to install a system in the next nine months.
Security was the primary reason for using a telematics system, cited by 62.5% of the sample. Only 31% said the system improved driver performance and saved fuel.
Kjell Anderton, director of TrackCompare, was suprised at the low take-up of the technology outside the plant hire sector: “Although just 27.5% of the businesses surveyed were plant hire specialists, they accounted for 72.9% of all the companies using plant tracking. And although only 15% of all the companies said they used tracking to save fuel, it was interesting to note that 31.25% said they found it helped improve driver performance and lowered fuel consumption: it seems many companies look on this as an extra benefit and not their main reason for using plant tracking.
“Surprisingly, only 52.1% of firms with plant tracking also tracked their on-road vehicles, such as vans and lorries. Not so surprising is that most businesses that don’t use tracking aren’t considering installing it over the next 12 months. Just 9.06% plan to.”
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