AEMP Members Express Need for Data

Sept. 28, 2010

Early in September, AEMP members were surveyed on their current usage and future needs for telematics data. The information members said they'd find most valuable if it were available were run and idle time (94 percent); start and stop time (75 percent); production data, such as cycle time (60 percent); and fuel usage and consumption (49 percent). Others want to see:

  • faults, warning lights, alarm codes
  • low coolant, low oil, overheating, over-speed
  • GPS detailed location
  • information on machine abuse
  • hydraulic pressures and certain voltages
  • temperature of coolant, transmission and hydraulics

The data is so important to fleet management, the majority of AEMP members (53.7 percent) said they would “ping” the machine (refresh the available data) daily and 7.4 percent would check it hourly.

While some of the information is currently available from OEM Web sites, only 40.7 percent of respondents are accessing the data. Among those that do, however, 47.7 percent must retrieve the information manually to use it to manage their fleets; 43.2 percent said they look at the numbers but don't use them. Only 6.8 percent have developed a way to integrate the information into their enterprise solution software.

Currently 50.5 percent of AEMP members use or plan to use a third-party telematics provider, citing ease of integration (64 percent) and competitive pricing (52 percent) as the top two reasons.

Telematics initiative

AEMP is working with several manufacturers on an industry-wide solution to providing key telematics data directly to end users. Representatives from Caterpillar, John Deere, Komatsu, Manitowoc, Qualcomm and Volvo recently agreed standardized file transfers of non-proprietary information to end users will allow more effective management.

Initial planning calls for development of a standard file format to allow end users to pull certain data streams from OEMs' servers automatically, eliminating the need for the end user to retrieve data manually.

Frank Raczon, Construction Equipment
Mark Pentz, Calvin Group/IEDA
Mark Pentz, Calvin Group/IEDA
Mark Pentz, Calvin Group/IEDA
Mark Pentz, Calvin Group/IEDA
Mark Pentz, Calvin Group/IEDA
ID 9194607 © Arak7 | Dreamstime.com
ID 9194607 © Arak7 | Dreamstime.com