Always an overview of the fleet – 123fleet makes it possible

Where others go on vacation, the construction company from southern Saxony-Anhalt has been rolling out heavy equipment since its founding in 1967 as a melioration company. Since reunification, the medium-sized company has been in private hands and has been operating as a limited liability company under the name MST since 1990. Thus, it reflects the core competencies of the time – melioration, road construction, civil engineering. Today, however, the focus is on road and civil engineering projects. Located between three construction-relevant hubs in Central Germany, the training company with 135 employees and its own machinery mainly implements projects in Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia. Clients are primarily state construction companies, utility companies, municipalities, special-purpose associations and private investors.

Goodbye, paper economy

Four years ago, they started digitizing and first introduced an ERP system. But even then it was clear that the handwritten timesheets also needed to be digitized.

With the introduction of
123onsite
this situation came to an end. Dipl.-Ing. Sven Meinhardt, head of the mechanical engineering department, had become acquainted with the app at a VDBUM event. Fascinated by the ease of use and the fast transfer of data from the construction site to the office, the decision was made to use it. MST then equipped 120 employees with smartphones on which the app was installed.

Today, the employee on the construction site simply books his attendance time and the system supplements the recorded hours via the stored information and transmits the resulting results promptly – provided there is a wireless connection – to payroll accounting. If there is no connection, which happens more often in the rural region, the app transmits the data as soon as a connection is available again.

Transparency and time saving

The advantage of using the 123onsite app is enormous for MST. In earlier times, sometimes the monthly financial statements could not be prepared on time because timesheets were missing and research had to be done. In addition, inconsistencies crept in because some colleagues did not write down the hours until the end of the week. All that is now a thing of the past. Today, employees are convinced of the ease of use, because it saves both their time and the time of their colleagues in payroll accounting. The time and effort spent on checks is a thing of the past, as is incorrect data entry.

Win-win situation

Enthusiastic about 123onsite, Sven Meinhardt volunteered as a beta tester for the 123fleet tracking portal, the expansion to include equipment and equipment automation. During this phase, he put the portal through its paces, passed on error messages, requests, but also possibilities for optimization and handling to the development team. A win-win situation for both MST and the software house.

No more tedious manual transfer

Working with 123fleet during the test phase convinced Sven Meinhardt. Particularly important for him is the connection of machines from different manufacturers. Equipment that does not have a telematics connection is gradually being retrofitted so that it can also be easily tracked in 123fleet. Currently, 100 pieces of equipment are connected to the tracking portal. The plan is to add another 200 pieces of equipment, divided into performance and provisioning devices, by the end of 2022.

At the start of the project, Meinhardt draws a geo window around the corresponding construction site, either a circle or a polygon, depending on the respective terrain situation. If the construction machines and devices equipped with telematics are located within this window, the assignment and recording of the devices, operating hours and meter readings takes place automatically.

Visual preparation of the device runtimes

The application displays the entire fleet in an intuitive map view. The visual processing of the runtimes enables Meinhardt to plan the fleet more economically together with the site managers. This means that the engineer always has an overview of the equipment, can see where it is located on the construction site and what it is currently performing. Evaluations of the equipment types, equipment performance, maintenance cycles of the equipment per project, etc. are possible and make his work easier.

123onsite is connected to the ERP system via an interface, and a further interface for the transfer of machine data is being planned. In the future, Meinhardt will then also be able to directly import the recorded operating times and services for further processing and assign them to clients and cost centers.

Save time and effort

The way of working has changed from paper recording to digital recording and offers the company both enormous time savings and transparency.

Also the
inspection and maintenance cycles
Meinhardt now manages them digitally with it. With 123fleet, he sets up the measures according to legal requirements, device type or manufacturer specifications. “An overview shows me the measures that have been stored and those that need to be taken into account, as well as the status depending on when they are due,” explains the engineer. “In addition, I can see when maintenance is due based on current meter or mileage readings.” In this way, the medium-sized company saves time by automating its machinery and can increase its productivity even further.

Image credits: 123onsite/Timo Lutz Advertising Photography.