Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/280096
Telematics March 2014 | Construction Equipment Distribution | www.cedmag.com | 21 their own, end-users will start getting together and figuring out a way to do it. It is our data. We understand our applications better than manufacturers do. They can build equipment and make it efficient, but as far as how end-users utilize the equip- ment, that is our area of expertise." Technology in Transition How the technology evolves in the next few years is not perfectly clear at the moment. If manufacturers can figure out how to share the bulk of data-point information without giving away the store, the major annoyances will mostly disappear. If proprietary concerns prevail, third-party hardware and software solutions may supplant factory-installed systems. As for contractors, they must decide if fully partnering with dealers in data collection and analysis is a trustworthy arrangement that will best serve them. Heavy equipment operators must come to grips with being "watched" constantly and receiving feedback on their perfor- mance from unseen back-office monitors. In addition, new generations of the technology must be increasingly user-friendly. "It has to be easy," said Blackburn at Navman Wireless, "so that customers will actually use it. A customer will do what is easiest for him – either pick up a phone and call about a piece of machinery or go into a telematics system. Ease of use is what it's all about." One way or another, telematics is likely to grow in influence as a management tool. Stemper at Case believes manufacturers will build better machinery as a result. "I believe that we're going to continue to find new ways to gauge and assess machine and operator performance, learning more about how machines operate. We can take that information back to R&D and find new methods to improve equipment design and function. The possibilities are endless." "I believe that in the next five years," said Kucharski at MacAl- lister Machinery, "we will look on machines without telematics like we did looking back at the old suitcase phones. The people who get on board earlier will be the contractors of tomorrow, today." Stan Orr at AEMP is even bolder in his forecast. "I will make a prediction that you will either use telematics or cease to exist as a successful, profit- able company. In the future, if a machine has a motor in it – whether it's a weedeater or a huge crane – if it has a motor, it is going to have telematics. I don't think fleets of the future will be able to compete unless they are using telematics." GILES LAMBERTSON is a retired journalist and freelance writer whose interest in the construction industry goes back to his carpen- try days. He can be reached at geepeela@ yahoo.com. Caterpillar's Steve Gosselin [left], vice president, Customer Services Support Division, who chaired AEM's Telematics Task Force, and Bob Merritt, former AEMP chairman and the global director of equipment, Energy and Construction division of URS Corp, led the last round of telematics standardization talks.