A business’s ability to increase productivity without having to increase capital spending is a necessity in today’s ever-changing market and harsh economic climate. For businesses running a fleet of equipment, whether it is a large or small fleet, the use of a fleet management system has far-reaching benefits. Driven by technology innovation and a quest to provide lowest cost per tonne solutions to its customers, Bell Equipment was one of the first original equipment manufacturers to develop its own satellite fleet management system, Fleetm@tic. This unique solution provides customers with a means to add value to their operation as well as impact positively on their bottom-line. Bell Equipment’s Fleetm@tic Manager, Philip Nel says: “With the support of a fleet management system such as Bell Fleetm@tic, fleet owners can more easily keep projects on schedule, maintain machine health and reduce the costs of running their fleet.
Fleetm@tic formula for success
At the heart of Fleetm@tic is a GPS and data transmitter/receiver unit, which is installed inside an ADT cab and integrated into the machine’s CANbus system. The onboard GPS receiver calculates the position of the machine from orbiting GPS satellites and stores position, production and machine data on the onboard memory module. This data is sent to the Bell Fleetm@tic server via the service provider’s base station, where it is processed into automated reports or stored for viewing from the website at a later stage. Fleet managers are issued with a confidential ID and password enabling secured access to his fleet information via the Fleetm@tic website. A unique characteristic of Fleetm@tic is that there is one service provider, Iridium, supplying worldwide coverage from pole-to-pole. Nel believes that this, together with the superior transceiver technology supplied by an American-based company Quake Global, enables Bell Equipment to offer its customers the best satellite monitoring system in the world. He said: “Whether you have a fleet of machines operating on a mine or construction site, or even if you own a plant hire business, Fleetm@tic provides customers with cutting edge, internet-based package that keeps them in touch with their equipment twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. “A selection of reports are available for each machine in a fleet ranging from daily, weekly, shift, monthly, load and event reports. These reports can be set up and the automated system will ensure that they are delivered to a customer promptly so that they have detailed information at their fingertips at all times. Advanced maps will also display a machine’s location.”
Monitoring performance, maximising productivity
Currently in its second generation, Fleetm@tic offers four levels of reporting, each more advanced and involved than the previous level. For example, Fleetm@tic Lite provides a shift summary for each machine in the fleet, including the machine hours, hours operated in a shift and the average fuel consumption. Acknowledging the value of such a system to customers, Bell Equipment supplies Fleetm@tic Lite as a standard feature on all new Articulated Dump Trucks (ADTs) sold globally.” Fleetm@tic Standard takes this a step further providing the total tonnes moved by each machine during the shift using the on-board weighing system. In addition a machine’s operating hours are illustrated in a time bar indicating idle time versus production time. This package also takes cognisance of driver behaviour, monitoring the service brake applied time versus retarder-activated time. The previous day’s error codes are received from the machine, which can assist with remote diagnostics of the machine. The machine’s position can also be viewed on a selection of maps. Automated service reminders can be sent to either the customer and/or the closest Bell Equipment Customer Service Centre for action, ensuring maximum uptime.
With Fleetm@tic Standard and the more advanced packages it is also possible for a customer to know which operator is driving which machine by creating a unique identification for each driver.
Once enabled by the customer, the identification will be reported on Fleetm@tic and in the near future the customer will receive a driver scoring to assist customers in directing focus to drivers needing training or applause. Fleetm@tic Max contains everything in the Fleetm@tic Standard package as well as providing up to three individual shift reports and up to 10 live event notifications on the web, with the option of sending notification to the customer’s mobile phone, as well as an automated event report after each shift. Each event is linked to the driver’s identification if the option has been enabled. Customers are also able to geofence a machine effectively limiting it to only operate in a specific geographic area with the option to limit the machine’s speed should the machine travel outside its boundaries.
Fleetm@tic Max Plus is the ultimate package providing almost live production information. An automated report is generated after each shift with load-by-load information, including the machine’s tipping position and the payload for each tip. The operator can select different materials while loading so that the customers can keep track of how many different materials were loaded and the quantity thereof. Apart from the automated reports, additional highly detailed statistical data is available to customers on the secure website once they have logged on with their user name and password. Information includes event reporting, production data, technical data, machine specifications and fault codes. Nel said that this information can be used to predict wear and tear of machine parts and can prove very useful to those customers. “As an example, a customer running a fleet of Bell B20Ds will be able to see the average fuel burn for each of the machines. Should one have excessive consumption he would easily see this from the data and be able to investigate the cause,” he said.
Likewise technical data includes statistics about the vehicle in general, the transmission and engine components such as battery levels, the hydraulic oil temperature, retarder torque information as well as the time spent in each gear.
The Barro Group in Australia are making use of Fleetm@tic on their new 50-tonner ADT, which is used in a quarrying application. Quarry Manager, Matt Teasdale has been impressed with the ease at which he is able to access production and vehicle operation data through the Fleetm@tic system. Using Fleetm@tic, the Barro Group has been able to verify claims of superior performance for its ADT’s as factual rather than “sales spin”. Mr Teasdale confirmed that he was amazed at the low fuel usage of the 50-tonner, which he monitors continuously. Fleetm@tic shows that in the past two months, the truck has hauled 56 852 tonnes in 227 hours, while consuming 2 991 litres of fuel. This equates to fuel figures of 19 tonnes per litre or 9,4 litres per hour – a truly economical performance by the 50-tonner. Similarly, local customer, Sudor Coal’s Halfgewonne Colliery in the Bethal District has two new B40Ds in use on the mine. Mine Engineer, Giel van Zyl said Fleetm@tic has revolutionized the way he works by enabling him to monitor how long each machine has been in operation, the fuel consumption statistics as well as the production figures.“It’s difficult to imagine how we managed before Fleetm@tic, but now that we have such a fleet management system we will make sure that Fleetm@tic is fitted to any ADT’s we may buy in the future. Apart from monitoring the performance of the operation we are able to monitor the performance of our operators.” In response Nel comments: “Fleet management systems are changing the way customers approach their business, taking a lot of guesswork out of the equation so that they can make more informed decisions. Fleetm@tic is an awesome tool to support our customers by providing useful information about machine production and service planning so that they can achieve high reliability and durability targets. Even better is that our customers can keep an eye on their machines via the website from the comfort of their homes, offices or even while travelling”.
