Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/946503
February 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com 32 road technology | by Joy Powell | JoyPowell@randallreilly.com AGS training can lead to competitive edge A t Volvo Construction Equipment's Road Institute, which teaches best practices for paving, trainers hear common refrains from operators who have been stymied by automatic grade control and slope (AGS) systems. "We often hear in our paving classes and our au- tomatic grade-and-slope classes where people have the systems, but they tried to use them once and they didn't get the training. They don't understand them. They don't set them up correctly. They fail. They throw them back in the box, and they don't deal with them again," says Wayne Tomlinson, who teaches compaction classes. "They go back to operating the paver completely manually." But knowing how to use AGS can reduce human error and boost productivity, according to Tomlinson and fellow trainer Flemming Knudsen, who teaches paving at the institute. Once operators learn it, instructors hear such com- ments as, "Wow, I didn't know it could do all that!" Using this increasingly required machine control technology can also strengthen a highway contractor's competitive edge in the bidding process, says Devin Laubhan, paving product manager for Trimble. "There are your competitors in your area who have not given up on the technology and who have em- braced it," Laubhan says. "They are the ones who are going to start learning how to competitively bid projects using technology, and they may have a competitive advantage against a contractor who has chosen not to implement technol-