Thinking ahead – Construction Today

If you questioned the typical man or woman which industries they would associate with tech prowess, it’s not possible they would promptly offer up design. But the fact is that the building field has the capacity to guide the way in technological advancement as companies find new means to prioritize efficiency, effectiveness and protection.

This is some thing J. Pettiecord, Inc. has learned firsthand. As 1 of the Midwest’s top contractors in a aggressive market place, the business has developed at a quick clip because its founding in 1981, starting up with a one truck and backhoe. Now, above 40 years later on, J. Pettiecord discovered itself getting rid of momentum to speed bumps in its administration processes as it scaled, specially when it came to its fleet of additional than 260 assets.

Adam Bliss, the IT and basic safety supervisor for J. Pettiecord, Inc, noticed an opportunity to use much better know-how to remedy some of the challenges the business was experiencing, from costly breakdowns and servicing delays to decentralized knowledge and know-how gaps amongst the personnel. By building the switch to a far more innovative fleet management software program, Bliss and J. Pettiecord were in a position to automate handbook facts entry procedures, centralize their fleet data in a one program, and streamline the complete upkeep operation for the fleet.

Bliss broke down the 5 most significant added benefits of switching to a extra highly developed fleet management program:

1. Being in advance of the curve
In get to pull in advance of its competition, J. Pettiecord, Inc. necessary a program remedy that would help it to function quicker and much better in order to safe additional careers than its opponents. But with over 65 staff handing in paper inspections and other guide reporting, a lot of managers’ time was put in looking down details and repeating data entry processes that took also lengthy to complete in the first position.

Bliss realized the firm wanted an overhaul of its existing units so that personnel could concentration more on their position roles, and that freeing them up of some time-consuming handbook duties would allow for them to use the abilities they ended up hired for additional effectively. That is why Bliss chose to onboard Fleetio, a fleet management system that experienced the capacity to automate and digitize extra fleet procedures than their more mature, out-of-date software program could deal with.

“Shop administrators can aim on their occupation, which is running the shop – not getting into paperwork or chasing down the guys when they wrote something that we cannot read,” Bliss said.

2. Staying away from highly-priced breakdowns
As a distinguished construction organization in the Des Moines region, J. Pettiecord, Inc. has worked on a lot of assignments that create a constructive impact in their group, with a weighty target on environmental and general public infrastructure. But becoming a section of a neighborhood signifies staying geared up when pressing emergencies occur along, irrespective of whether it is clearing particles from storm hurt or disposing of contaminated soils.

“We will need to be able to reply swiftly to emergency incidents,” Bliss mentioned. “If we have machines down, we just can’t services all those shoppers.”

In purchase to keep ready for regardless of what get the job done will come together, J. Pettiecord, Inc. takes advantage of fleet management program to continue to keep a properly-preserved fleet with automated preventive routine maintenance schedules to prevent any prospective breakdowns. And when breakdowns do take place, it utilizes digitized function orders and communication methods. In-house specialists can take care of their working day with set PM schedules and notifications, though also getting in a position to rapidly reply in-app to any challenges documented by operators.

3. Controlling 3rd-party distributors
Although J. Pettiecord, Inc. does have its personal crew of specialists, its workload can frequently outweigh its staffing. Having trusted partnerships with outsourced routine maintenance shops and getting in a position to connect with them devoid of any games of phone tag is crucial to making sure its exterior maintenance efforts run just as smoothly as its in-house procedure.

Mainly because J. Pettiecord, Inc. makes use of Fleetio for its fleet administration, the company is ready to employ routine maintenance store integrations to link with a companion of its preference and quickly see support updates, take care of payment and billing processes and even review bargains from distinct retailers.

“Having a fleet remedy that allows us establish issues promptly, acquiring that info to our mechanics and our shop supervisor is certainly essential,” Bliss explained.

4. Having everyone on just one platform
As an IT manager, Bliss understands the significance of choosing the right technologies methods to in good shape an group and everybody in it. He labored diligently to come across a software that had a person-pleasant mobile platform that would be obtainable to absolutely everyone that would will need to use it, irrespective of their knowledge or consolation stage with know-how.

“Some are better with technological innovation than other folks,” Bliss stated. “When you have fellas utilized to undertaking things for a extensive time, you have to instruct them a tiny little bit how to use these new instruments. Luckily for us, Fleetio helps make it pretty evident what they need to have to do.”

Fleetio enables drivers and technicians at J. Pettiecord, Inc. to entry and comprehensive inspections, function orders and other vital fleet information from their telephones or tablets, ensuring simplicity of use and consistent adoption.

5. Centralizing fleet details with automation
As fleets attempt to grow to be more tech-ahead, it can quickly turn into tough to balance all the unique tech alternatives that are intended to make life less complicated. In order to stay away from acquiring lost in a jumble of facts and dashboards, Bliss produced positive to seem for a fleet administration remedy that could effortlessly integrate with other platforms to unite fleet details in a single site, as nicely as supply a stage of customization to make certain the ideal info was readily available in their system.

Bliss in particular can take gain of Fleetio’s open API from an IT perspective, an open up API presents him more overall flexibility to instantly import the facts which is most significant to his fleet. This makes it possible for him to make sure that their Fleetio dashboard usually displays what they require now, fairly than currently being trapped with an outdated computer software that simply cannot scale with the firm.

“It’s pleasant when [software] have their have integrations, but the gain of an open up API is that I can establish my own as important,” Bliss mentioned. “That’s what can conclusion up saving us a lot of time – the means to automate tons of factors.”

Peyton Panik is a written content internet marketing expert for Fleetio, a fleet administration program corporation that assists companies observe, evaluate and enhance their fleet operations. For a lot more details, take a look at www.fleetio.com