How GPS Tracking for Construction Equipment Works?
A construction fleet is more difficult to manage than a road fleet. All the assets are transported from one site to another on trailers, left outside for days without anyone working on them, operated by other crews, and a stolen excavator is not usually recovered, unlike a van. After all this, contractors are going to want to know the basics—where is each machine, how many hours has it been working, when is it due for service, and did it move when it shouldn’t have—but that is where GPS tracking comes in.
This guide provides an overview of how a GPS-tracking system for construction equipment works, what data it gathers, and the one thing that confuses many construction equipment GPS tracking buyers: The GPS system on a powered construction equipment machine is not the same as the system on a non-powered asset. It’s written to help you to define the correct set-up, rather than to sell you a specific number of savings figures – so it doesn’t tout a number that is entirely dependent on your fleet.
How does GPS tracking for construction equipment work?
GPS construction equipment tracking is achieved by placing a GPS unit on every piece of construction equipment or asset that is to be tracked and transmitting the location (along with other information like movement, alerts, and if the GPS unit and construction equipment can accommodate, the engine hours) via the cell network to a platform that you view on a map. It is typically connected to the power and data bus of powered machines, or it is a self-contained, battery-powered asset tag for non-powered assets such as trailers and attachments. This raw data is translated into location history, utilization and service reminders, and theft alerts on the platform.
It all works just like any GPS tracking, except that the device receives a fix from the satellites, and transmits the fix to a cellular modem (if available) and software then decodes and displays it. The challenge with construction tracking is that you have a combination of assets and what you’re tracking. Seeing as the fleet in the construction business is mainly focused on how much time the machines are on the road, rather than on how many miles they have driven, the units are more likely to be based on engine hours. And, a construction fleet should monitor items that have no engine whatsoever, and you need to use different hardware.
“GPS tracking for construction equipment” is actually three jobs in one package: tracking assets throughout sites, monitoring the rattle of powered machines, and safeguarding assets from theft. The positioning technology is the underlying technology, see how GPS tracking works; this is the guide specific to heavy equipment.
What is the difference between tracking powered equipment and non-powered assets?
It is the difference that determines what hardware you will need, and most GPS pitches don’t tell you this.
Powered equipment – is driven by its own power supply, such as excavators, loaders, dozers, generators, tippers, etc., and will have its own data bus (CAN) that a tracker may be able to read. The wired tracker draws from the machine and depending on the tracker model it can retrieve more data: engine hours, ignition state and sometimes even fuel level or fault codes, etc. Some machines don’t ever contain this data, and some trackers don’t read it, so what you are receiving must be verified on each machine. Wired tracker is permanently running as long as the machine is powered on.
Non-powered assets – trailers, attachments, buckets, site containers, non-powered light towers) do not have the power to be drawn from. They must be reported on a schedule (for instance, a few times a day but not continuously) in order to maintain battery life, and the location data is contained on a self-contained asset tag with its own battery. The reporting frequency and battery life will depend on the type of tag and configuration. A tag cannot read the engine hours as there is no engine; however, it can tell you where the asset is and if the asset is moving it will notify you.
The mistake that most people make and end up spending a lot is purchasing a wired tracker for a vehicle, finding they cannot fit it in a trailer or a unit that is detached from the vehicle, and leaving half the yard to be untracked. A construction tracking setup will not be all or nothing, it will be a blend of both.
| Powered equipment | Non-powered assets | |
| Examples | Excavators, loaders, generators, tippers | Trailers, attachments, buckets, containers |
| Device | Wired tracker (drawn from machine power) | Battery-powered asset tag |
| Power source | The machine | The tag’s own long-life battery |
| Data captured | Location and ignition; engine hours, fuel and faults where the machine and tracker support it | Location and movement only |
| Reporting | Typically continuous while powered | Scheduled (e.g. a few times a day); varies by tag |
Why is engine-hour tracking important for construction equipment?
Heavy equipment is maintenance based on hours rather than distance — and GPS tracking is the way to get those hours without having to manually document them.
Odometer is serviced every so many miles on a truck. There is no real mileage for an excavator, it sits in one place and digs so its wear depends on the hour meter, or the operating time of the engine. Service intervals are specified by manufacturers in engine hours (e.g., service when a machine reaches a certain number of engine hours), so having accurate, current hours for all machines is the only thing that will enable you to schedule the correct service, not too soon (and wasting money) or too late (and risking failure).
The hours are read manually from each machine’s meter and recorded — which are always inaccurate and out of date. In certain situations, a wired tracker can report engine hours automatically, keeping current figures and alerting the platform when a machine nears its interval by issuing a service reminder, depending on the make and model of the machine and the tracker. It’s the preventive-maintenance logic that is applied to vehicle maintenance management, but it’s time-based, based on the number of hours heavy equipment requires maintenance.
How does GPS tracking help prevent and recover from equipment theft?
Construction tracking is really worth its salt when it comes to theft: stolen construction equipment can be harder to replace than a stolen car.
It’s structural: car ownership is controlled, every car has a standardised VIN, and a standard location; construction equipment ownership is not controlled in the same way, every construction equipment has a different PIN format and standard location and not everyone abides by the voluntary 17-character standard.
This makes it difficult to identify and recover a stolen machine, and the rate of recovery is low as a result: After conducting the main equipment theft and ownership databases, the National Equipment Register and NICB reported in their 2015 Annual Theft Report that only 22 percent of stolen equipment was recovered that year year (NER/NICB 2015 Theft Report, PDF). Numbers change over the years, so use them as a reference point, not a number, but the pattern of equipment stolen, is never recovered, is consistent.
GPS tracking alters the odds in two ways. Prevention: When a machine or asset enters an unapproved space, an alert is triggered to the system instantly; when a machine or asset moves after-hours, when there is no scheduled work, an alert is triggered to the system — you learn about theft in minutes, not the next morning. Police must act on a live, not a dead, location, and it’s very much easier to act on a location from a stolen asset than a PIN that may never match. Though tracking is not a means of making equipment unstealable, it does make ‘it’s gone’ ‘it’s here, come and get it.
How does GPS tracking improve equipment utilisation?
Utilisation tracking is a question that every contractor must ask themselves – “are we getting value out of this machine or is it just sitting there and we are paying for it?”
A tracker on a powered machine will record engine hours and location, so the platform can illustrate how much time each machine is actually being used and how much time it’s spending sitting onsite with nothing else to do. That’s just two of the high cost patterns in a construction fleet: machines that are underused and could be sent to a more productive site, or idle machines that are burning fuel and contributing engine hours (and maintenance costs) without performing productive work. A plant manager can rebalance his equipment without needing to hire more machines by viewing utilisation per machine at all sites.
This is reporting for equipment, not distance and trip, like a road fleet reports. — hours worked, idle time, movement between sites. See fleet reporting and analytics. for a wider perspective of the reporting situation.
How do you track equipment across multiple job sites?
Multi-site visibility is simply a plant list on a spreadsheet versus knowing, right now, what is where.
A construction business operates several jobs at a time, and equipment is transferred from one job to another, not always with the plant manager knowing. All machines and assets are placed on one map, grouped or filtered based on site with geofences drawn around each site. The geofence records the machine’s arrival and departure to a site, and automatically creates an accurate record of what assets are in which site, without anyone having to call it in. It’s the same geofence that is used with the theft and after hours alerts mentioned above — one fence, multiple uses.
The real benefit comes at the end of the month and when you have to hire – you see a site is using equipment that it doesn’t need and see that another site doesn’t have enough – and you make the decision to move it there – rather than wait for an invoice or for the question to arise due to a shortage.
How does AIQ Connect track construction equipment?
AIQ Connect is a self-hosted, white-labelled GPS tracking and fleet management system and the construction use of AIQ Connect is provided by product terms on the construction equipment GPS tracking page. Like any tracking claim, it’s fair to distinguish the basic GPS and fleet tracking tasks (which are the same for vehicles as much as construction equipment and powered vehicles) from the construction-specific capabilities that rely on the appropriate hardware for your assets.
The table below is presented in an conservative manner. Rows labeled In scope are functions that are essential for every platform; rows labeled Confirm are construction specific functions which you should check with the product at hand and your assets before using.
| Capability | For construction equipment | Status |
| Live GPS location and movement history | Locating machines and vehicles across sites | In scope |
| Geofencing, site and after-hours alerts | Per-site records, theft and out-of-hours alerts | In scope |
| Multi-site view on one map | All sites and assets in one place | In scope |
| Maintenance scheduling and reminders | Service reminders for all assets | In scope |
| Battery-powered asset tags for non-powered assets | Tracking trailers, attachments, containers | Confirm |
| Engine-hours capture from powered machines | Reads hour meter / CAN for hours-based service | Confirm |
| Utilisation and idle reporting by machine | Hours worked vs idle, per machine | Confirm |
| Fuel monitoring on equipped machines | Fuel use / waste where hardware supports it | Confirm |
The caution is warranted because it’s in your best interest being able to track a yard with a mix of assets, both wired and battery, and read engine hours from battery assets. Any vendor, including AIQ Connect, should be able to tell you, prior to your commitment, which of your machine models and asset types they can track, and which hardware they use to track them.
AIQ Connect is self-hosted, meaning the location and operational data that it collects can be stored on infrastructure that you control, depending on your deployment — read more about what self-hosted GPS tracking software means. If you’re looking to understand the technology and then evaluate the platform, you should start with the construction equipment GPS tracking page.
How do you choose a construction equipment tracking setup?
The key to making the right choice is to match your actual mix of assets to hardware, and then to see if the platform can do the construction-specific jobs. The questions that count:
On hardware and asset types: Can I track my powered machines (wired, with engine hours) as well as my non-powered machines such as trailers and attachments (battery tags)? What type of machine models are present in which can be read the hours in the engine?
On theft: Would you like to allow per-site geofences and after-hours movement alerts, and would you want me to provide a real-time location should my vehicle(s) be stolen and I am asked to provide the police a real-time location?
On maintenance: Do you perform service on engine hours and not calendar hours?
On multi-site: be able to view and filter all assets by site on one map including automatically logging in and out times.
On ownership and data: Self-hosted / vendor-cloud and location / operational data? Learn what self-hosted GPS tracking software means.
On fit with the rest of your fleet: Does equipment tracking live in the same platform as your vehicle tracking, maintenance and reporting? To see fleet management platform in the bigger picture view.
If a vendor can tell you what hardware is in your powered machines, and what trailers and attachments you have, you’re in actual construction tracking. If you’re providing just 1 wired tracker, you’re providing vehicle tracking, and 50% of your yard will be invisible.
Frequently asked questions
How does GPS tracking for construction equipment work?
GPS satellites determine a device’s location on each machine or asset and transmit that location, along with data on movement, alerts and if supported by the machine and tracker, engine hours, to your view of the map via the cellular network. While a powered asset is connected to the equipment’s power and data bus, non-powered assets such as trailers are equipped with a self contained, battery powered tag. The platform converts this data into location history, utilisation, reminders to use the service, and alerts for thefts.
Can you track non-powered equipment like trailers and attachments?
Yes, but it requires other hardware. A wired tracker needs to be plugged into a machine to work, so it can’t be used on an unplugged machine. Non-powered assets: These assets have a built-in asset tag with a battery that reports location based on a schedule (to conserve battery) and lets you know when the asset moves; reporting frequency and battery life varies by asset tag. Typical construction systems combine powered systems with battery powered systems.
What is the difference between a GPS tracker and an asset tag?
A wired tracker runs continuously as long as the machine is powered and can gather more than just location; it will typically report ignition, and if the machine and hardware permits — hours on engine, fuel, and/or fault codes. Looks and reports location and movement without engine data to be read and maintains battery life by reporting location on a schedule. Depending on whether the asset is self powered or not.
Why is equipment tracked by engine hours instead of mileage?
Heavy equipment wears based on time, not miles — an excavator digs in one place, and gets very little mileage. The service periods are determined by the manufacturers and are measured in hours on the engine (read on the machine hour meter) and these hours are what allow you to schedule the correct maintenance on the machine. If the machine and tracker allow, a wired tracker will be able to report those hours automatically, rather than someone reading meters by hand.
Does GPS tracking help recover stolen construction equipment?
It enhances your odds. Another factor is that stolen heavy equipment is not as readily recovered as stolen cars — the NER/NICB 2015 theft report revealed that only 22% of stolen heavy equipment was recovered in 2015, largely due to the equipment not having the same level of standardisation as cars (VINs) and ownership (regulated). GPS tracking can help in two ways: geofence and after-hours alerts alert you to a potential theft in real time, while live location on the stolen device is something that police can do something about instead of a PIN that doesn’t necessarily match.
Can one platform track both construction vehicles and heavy equipment?
Yes, and that’s what a fleet platform is all about: pickups and trucks, powered machines, and non-powered assets all on one map. Wired trackers can be used with vehicles and powered equipment, while battery tags can be used with non-powered assets. What you need to make sure you are able to use on the platform is the type of hardware your mixed fleet requires, not just vehicle trackers.
Is GPS tracking for construction equipment worth it for a small fleet?
This will depend on what is to be protected and managed with it, so be wary of any vendor payback number without a particular vendor name. The fairest way to measure it is by yourself: by the value of assets you would want to be reimbursed if the equipment is stolen, by the cost of under-used or over idling machines, or by the amount of administration time you spend tracking the location of equipment. In the case of a small fleet with a couple of high-value machines, theft protection may be the deciding factor.
Conclusion
GPS tracking for construction equipment is GPS tracking, but as it is applied to the real behavior of a plant fleet: Assets are measured in engine hours instead of miles… There is a mix of powered equipment and not powered equipment that requires different hardware… Equipment is deployed around sites… A theft issue where a live location is worth much more than a PIN. Install the appropriate hardware (wired trackers for powered machines, battery tags for trailers and attachments) and one platform can track everything, schedule yard hours, and help protect the yard.
Next step: If you’re looking to see this in action, the construction equipment GPS tracking page demonstrates how AIQ Connect works in conjunction with a mixed fleet of construction vehicles and equipment, or you can visit the entire fleet management platform and view how it works with vehicle tracking, maintenance and reporting.
