US Rokbak dealer GT Mid Atlantic found that telematics systems became so beneficial to increasing customer uptime and productivity that it established a dedicated unit to monitor equipment – something which has proven to be a huge success with its customers.

Rokbak dealer and US construction equipment supplier GT Mid Atlantic (GTMA) has a lot of equipment to keep track of with a huge rental fleet of approximately 600 machines, 74 of which are Rokbak articulated haulers. Luckily, with Rokbak’s Haul Track telematics system, this task becomes a little easier.

GTMA operates across Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Washington D.C., Philadelphia and northern Virginia and West Virginia. It’s one of the region’s premier sources for equipment, aftermarket and remanufactured heavy equipment parts. At the heart of GTMA’s extensive operation in its New Jersey branch is a technical control area, dubbed the ‘War Room’, which is devoted to telematics monitoring. It’s here that the team work to increase customer uptime and productivity. For example, with data from Rokbak’s Haul Track telematics system, they can detail the precise location of each truck within a specific fleet, see where each unit has been working, track loads, calculate the hours worked as well as monitor speed, fuel consumption and idle time.

“There are times when we’re aware a machine has a problem before the customer knows,” explains Eric Marburger, GTMA Vice-President and General Manager – Maryland & Delaware. “When we go out to the site, we know exactly where the fault is. For example, it may be low fuel pressure, which means we’ll bring fuel filters with us so we’ve got the parts we need to fix the issue.

“Fundamentally telematics enables increased uptime and productivity for the customer and reduced travel time and mileage for us.”

Inside the War Room

The War Room is now an integral part of how GTMA operates, further enhancing reliability and earned trust in the dealer and truck in the eyes of the customer.

A full-time telematics manager monitors the multiple screens the telematics groups are superimposed onto in the War Room. It is his job to proactively monitor machine health via easily understandable diagnostic and preventative maintenance data. The machines can be tracked anywhere that receives a satellite signal, with the location of the machine shooting up on screen with a red marker when there is an issue.

“Our telematics unit allows us to proactively tell the customer about an issue and fix it in a timely manner before it becomes a problem,” says Anthony Nuzzo, GTMA Product Support.

“Telematics detail exactly what’s going on – it bleeds into everything we do. I’ve got as much information at my fingertips as I need. The telematics system will let you know where the truck is, when it’s due for service, whether it’s running and how many hours are on the machine. Everyone should have it on their equipment.”

“Customers are often flabbergasted about what we’re able to do,” says Eric. “They absolutely love the fact that we’re proactive and sometimes able to come up with a plan before they’ve even contacted us. “It’s reassuring for customers to know they’ve got top-level product support.”

Rokbak on track

“Telematics systems like Haul Track are helping customers to work in the most efficient way,” concludes Eric. “It is about catching things before they’re a problem and acquiring information to make the machines better performers.

“It’s a hard, demanding industry, so we need to keep machines running as much as possible. And, if they do ever go down, telematics helps get them back up and running in the quickest and most efficient manner possible.”

Haul Track hardware is fitted as standard on all Rokbak Tier 4 Final and Stage V articulated dump trucks.

Customer insight

Long-time GTMA customer, Maryland contractor Potomac Excavating, has two Rokbak RA30s which are used for cut and fill operations on both small and large job sites ranging up to 30 acres.

“Telematics allow me to keep better track of both the health and use of the trucks without having to be on-site every day to monitor them,” explains Potomac Excavating Equipment Manager Aden Price. “Being able to use the location services helps me keep track of which machine is at which location for transportation purposes, and the health monitoring service allows me to do general diagnosing from my phone. This way, if a machine has a fault code come up, I can easily access the code and the serial number of the truck and get in contact with the service department to get it worked on without having to go and find the machine and obtain that information in person.”