How EROAD put Taranaki Civil Construction in a league of its own

Taranaki Civil Construction has a fleet of over 120 vehicles and assets, working in remote parts of Taranaki. Due to steady growth, it needed the ability to manage its entire fleet using one system, which would streamline servicing, improve transparency around billing, and verify the location of its vehicles and assets.

Its work with clients in the oil and gas industry means it is subject to a range of consent conditions; with trucks permitted to travel to those sites during certain hours only, and at reduced speeds. It needed to be able to monitor driving behaviour to meet the requirements of those customers, improve health and safety compliance and reduce maintenance costs.

Taranaki Civil Construction installed EROAD units in around 120 vehicles, 40% of which travel on roads. The other 60% is made up of graders, excavators and other construction equipment, the majority of those fitted with waterproof asset trackers.

The company’s operations manager, Scott Foreman, is now able to track the fleet using EROAD’s web application, MyEROAD, and allocate plant and equipment to tasks, using a mobile device. To schedule services, WOFs and COFs he uses EROAD’s Service module.

The company chose an open forum to implement EROAD Over Speed and Idle reports, to educate drivers about exactly what they were being used for and why, and ensure their buy-in.

“You’ve got to make sure that things are accurate and calibrated or you can come unstuck,” says Director Simon Mulligan. “I tell everyone in a staff meeting that EROAD’s on, and these are the things that are being monitored.”

The company’s focus in installing the EROAD solution was a single, umbrella system but in less than a year it has delivered significant additional benefits, including cost savings. Cash flow has been significantly improved by reducing the amount of RUC purchased by up to 50% at a time.

Addressing idling habits has been key to reducing costs, too. “Excavation operators are used to an industry where the diggers have to keep going because that’s how we make money. When it’s a lump sum, fixed project, you turn your excavator off when it’s not working,” Simon says.

EROAD fleet tracking has enabled the company to verify the time its construction equipment takes to perform a particular job.

“We can demonstrate to a client and give them evidence that the excavator worked for five hours in a certain location with a dump truck. We could never do this before,” Simon says.

That transparency means those clients don’t query invoices and it’s given the company an added opportunity to measure and reward employee productivity.

“If we ever needed an audit or if a client questions something, I can go to their workplace, log on, and show them the asset and what it was doing. It builds confidence in the business relationship.”

During a major job that involved a lot of road trucking, an oil and gas client was receiving complaints from the community about possible speeding trucks. Taranaki Civil Construction set up Virtual Speed Cameras on the entire route, with additional Virtual Speed Cameras on corners.

“We had a couple of situations where we were accused of speeding. I was able to do a data log on certain points on the road on certain vehicles and take the information to their communications arm. They were able to go to the residents and show evidence that we weren’t speeding and it gave the residents confidence someone was monitoring the trucks,” Simon says.

“It’s put us in a league of our own with this client. We’re more favoured to do the work because of the system we’ve got. And it’s good for their relationship with the community.”