INDUSTRY NEWS
Caterpillar’s D7E bulldozer is one of the machines in the company’s inventory that is equipped with Product Link, a remote monitoring product
that allows operators to keep track of their fleets, as well as observe various statistics on their fleets’ usage.
coming in second. California had the
highest rate of theft for such equipment,
followed by Florida, Texas, Arizona and
Georgia, according to the survey.
“If you think about the disruption that
can go along with equipment being
stolen, it can really impact a business,”
he said. “That’s why we feel it’s so
important to equip your vehicles. You
can’t afford the downtime and the pen-
alties that come from theft.”
The rough economy is actually
working in favor of telematics system
providers, Hansen said, especially
when construction equipment costs
thousands of dollars.
“The slow economy has actually
resulted in companies looking hard-
er at telematics as a way to improve
the bottom line and better manage
the reduced fleet and lower margins
on projects,” Hansen said. “Taking a
proactive role in managing the fleet
instead of a reactive one has shown
its return on investment over and
over again.”
Volvo found out quickly how valu-
able its CareTrack system really
is. Over the past 12 months, the
company has seen a surge in inter-
est over its telematics system from
customers, O’Sullivan said. That
surge has led Volvo to make its
CareTrack system standard on all
its large machines, such as its exca-
vators, wheel loaders, motor graders
and haulers.
Volvo Construction Equipment’s
G940 motor grader clears snow in
Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Two
of the company’s motor graders
were stolen, but quickly recov-
ered thanks to Care Track, Volvo’s
telematics system.
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