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By Greg Bartlett

Heavy equipment represents a sizable investment for the heavy equipment operator. Due to the size of the equipment, it cannot be easily removed from the construction site on a daily basis. Road construction equipment, graders, scrapers and bulldozers are often targets of theft. The loss of this equipment represents a financial loss for the owner as well as delays in construction when replacement equipment is not readily available. GPS tracking systems are well equipped to fight this epidemic.

Heavy construction equipment is often stolen and then shipped overseas where it is sold as used equipment. The equipment typically disappears at night or over a weekend where it will not be missed for a period of time. This equipment is loaded on a trailer and simply vanishes into the night and can be hundreds of miles away from the construction site in a very short period of time.

Knowledgeable heavy equipment operators have equipped their equipment with GPS tracking systems. These systems allow the owner of the equipment to determine the exact location of their equipment at any time of the day, anywhere in the world. This ability to determine where the equipment is allows the owner to notify the local police department as to where the stolen equipment is for recovery.

In addition to the recovery of stolen equipment the systems allow the owner of the construction company the opportunity to determine how the equipment is being used on the job site. If a job turns out to demand more equipment as can be seen by the overutilization of the equipment on the site then more equipment can be placed on site to speed the completion of the job. If too much equipment is located at a particular site as evidenced by the underutilization of a particular piece of equipment then that underutilized equipment can be removed from the particular job and assigned to another job site.

The installation of GPS tracking systems on heavy construction equipment allows the owner of the construction company the ability to track the equipment. This tracking can aid in the recovery of the equipment should a theft occur. The tracking can also be utilized to create a database of equipment usage on the site allowing real time adjustments should the need arise to add equipment to the site or remove underutilized equipment from the site. The tracking ability helps prevent construction delays and the consequent failure to meet contract completion time penalties. GPS locator devices installed on heavy equipment pay for the cost of the GPS monitoring in a short time. For more information, call Rocky Mountain Tracking, Inc. at 1-888-242-0500.