Telematics and connected technology provider Road Ready has unveiled SmartSite, contractor-grade GPS-based equipment tracking technology for construction sites.

Road Ready is owned by Michigan-based Clarience Technologies, a transportation technology provider whose companies serve the vocational truck, construction and off-highway equipment market including Truck-Lite LED lighting, Davco diesel filtration, Ecco safety systems, and Pressure Systems International tyre pressure monitoring and automatic tyre inflation systems.

The SmartSite GPS tracking is engineered to withstand punishing jobsite environments.

“Armed with the technology that’s helped us make countless on-highway fleets more efficient, Road Ready is going off road,” said Nada Jiddou, executive vice president of Clarience Technologies. “Our new SmartSite equipment tracking helps contractors avoid project delays and cost overruns from lost or misplaced equipment, making them more efficient and improving their bottom line.”

The equipment tracking was designed to address a common need many contractors face – how to capitalise upon construction’s peak season, the summer months when the days are longest and, in much of the USA, when the weather is most cooperative.

“Contractors have told us that peak season is their critical time to earn money and keep them in the black for rest of the year,” said Mark Johnson, chief marketing officer for Clarience Technologies. “We quickly saw a way to apply our technology for contractors to avoid situations preventing them from working at their peak, all through peak season.”

SmartSite users can track and manage their assets through a simple portal, their starting point for unlocking the system’s potential. The portal lets a contractor view all enrolled assets in one place, improving scheduling tasks and helping reduce overbooking equipment, a situation that might delay, or even cancel, scheduled jobs. Assigning available assets to the next job becomes easier both when using list view, which provides details on each asset being tracked, or map view, which lets the contractor easily see available assets in proximity to the next job.

Additionally, SmartSite helps contractors react quickly when equipment goes missing, which often means it was either delivered to the wrong job, delivered to the right job and overlooked, or, in rare cases, stolen. In these situations, contractors can login and pinpoint the exact location of the equipment on a map, so they can get the correct assets to where they are needed. In fact, this tool is most valuable when its used proactively to confirm the right equipment was delivered prior to the start of the job. This helps avoid the costly scenario of paying a work crew to sit idle onsite while waiting for the correct equipment to arrive.

Whatever a contractor’s next jobsite might look like – road construction, commercial development, demolition, or more – the equipment used at that worksite can take a beating. That’s why Road Ready chose to develop hardware to withstand the punishing conditions faced in these environments, so companies knew once they installed the device, they could have the peace of mind that it would stay in place and keep working.

The proprietary, contractor-grade tracking device is engineered to be nearly indestructible. The fully-potted device is small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, is fully encased in stainless steel, and attaches to a two-gauge steel mounting plate that welds directly to the equipment being tracked. This helps protect the device hardware from physical impacts that occur on the job throughout construction season.

The device is battery powered and is designed to emit a daily location ping for eight years, which means once the tracker is installed, the system is essentially worry-free for nearly a decade.

Road Ready was created by Truck-Lite in 2017 as telematics for commercial truck trailers. Road Ready became its own business three years later when parent Clarience Technologies was formed.

Truck-Lite offers front forward, directional, warning and marker and clearance lighting that can be found on a broad variety of work trucks, truck bodies, heavy duty tractors and specialised trailers that pass through a jobsite in any given day.