Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/335762
EquipmentWorld.com | July 2014 11 reporter | by Equipment World staff I n June I attended the Association of Equipment Management Professionals annual retreat and strategy session. If you're not familiar with the AEMP, they are the equipment fl eet managers for a wide range of construction companies in North America. Mem- bers manage in total almost $36 billion in equipment assets and purchase some $3.7 billion in equipment and trucks every year. Serious iron. Deep frustration And what I heard from these guys this year was a deep sense of frustration with telematics. AEMP has been working to bring an industry- wide standard to telematics data feeds for several years. The standard, when it becomes implemented, will include 19 machine data points and dozens of additional machine fault codes. The standard will eliminate the need to go to a different website to collect telematics data from each different OEM. They have also partnered with Association of Equip- ment Manufacturers on the telematics standard and there's even a German association interested as well. So that part of the problem is steaming toward an eventual solution. Two big problems But for end users two big problems still exist. First: getting the information you need from a telematics data stream is like trying to take a sip of water from a fi re hose. There is so much information that it's hard to extract and manage only the data you need. Second: the complexity of merging all this infor- mation with a company's business or maintenance/ management software is a daunting task. You lose a good deal of the productivity and effi ciency you should be getting from telematics if you have to write down your key information points on paper and manually reenter them into your back offi ce programs. The integration of telematics and back offi ce software can be done, but it takes somebody well versed in computer and software technology to make it work. And that somebody, more often than not, is going to be a lot younger than the average fl eet manager. Likely to be in their 20s, that person might not know much about construction or equip- ment. That may be a disconnect, but the smart man- ager is going to fi gure out how to reconnect. You may already have a young person working for you who would step up to the challenge. And consul- tants in this fi eld can do a lot for you as well. If you're a seasoned veteran in this industry, your job is not to fi gure out how this technology works, but to learn what it can do for you. Leave the "how" part to the 20-somethings. Education available The good news here is that AEMP will be dedicating the entire educational portion of its two-day fall con- ference to telematics. Whether you're starting from square one or you are already using telematics there will be sessions to address needs at all levels. The conference will run November 2-4, in Nashville, Ten- nessee. The individual session contents and speakers should be published in the next few weeks. Check www.aemp.org and equipmentworld.com for up- dates and details. – Tom Jackson Stumped by telematics? Big fl eet managers struggle with it too. T he lack of enthusiasm about the federally-man- dated Tier 4 Final fl uid handling and mainte- nance requirements was front and center during a contractor panel held last month at Flagler Construction Equipment, a Volvo Construction Equipment dealer in Tampa, Florida. "It's a new game in the industry for both manufacturers and contractors," says Rich Fuist, director of fl eet opera- tions for civil and utility contractor Ripa and Associates, Tampa, Florida. "And it's a challenge for all the manufac- "Pain in the butt:" Three contractors tell how they're dealing with Tier 4 Don Woodruff Mike Jarrell Rich Fuist