Plant tracking means fitting GPS trackers to construction machinery and site equipment so they can be located on a map at any time. When a mini-excavator is needed on a different part of a large site, the site manager does not need to walk the site to find it – they check the tracking dashboard.
Plant tracking uses battery-powered asset trackers rather than hardwired trackers because most construction plant does not have a standard 12V vehicle power supply. Solar-assisted trackers are common for machines that work outdoors.
- Live location – shows each piece of plant on a map with its current status (working, idle, stationary)
- Theft prevention – geofence alerts fire if plant leaves the site boundary outside working hours
- Engine hours – records actual running time for maintenance scheduling
- Utilisation reporting – shows what percentage of available time each machine was in use, supporting hire cost decisions
- Insurance – some insurers offer premium reductions for GPS-tracked plant