HRI, Inc. Uncovers “a Plethora” of Paving Data with FleetWatcher

Founded in 1947 as a small, family-owned paving company in State College, Pennsylvania,   HRI, Inc.   has grown to become a major contractor working throughout the Commonwealth as part of a large multinational corporation,   Colas USA .   Their construction operations consist of asphalt paving, heavy and highway construction, structures, utilities and treatment plants, site work, and more. With six hot mix asphalt plants, they provide a variety of bituminous products for numerous state a nd local agencies and private cont ractors, with the majority of their construction projects being done with PennDOT.
 
 
Kory Fish is entering his 13th paving season as a Project Manager in their Western Region Paving Operations and has been with the company since his Project Engineer internship in 2007. He works with the Paving Superintendent and Project Engineer to get projects setup, coordinated, and built within budget. Kory also sets up the FleetWatcher shifts and monitors them throughout the day to track truck & equipment locations, utilize the real-time data to monitor progress and make adjustments, and help troubleshoot any e-ticketing questions.
 
Their Parent Company,   Barrett Industries  gave them the opportunity to pilot the program in PA one year ago and they “immediately jumped on it. I have been involved with our paving operations since my internship and have seen it evolve from daily handwritten timesheets that were faxed in, to using laptops and now iPads.  Technology is exponentially advancing around us and with constricting budgets and tightening specifications, we as an industry need to evolve as well by taking full advantage of all the tools that exist.” Having used a couple different systems prior, they have been having very “pleasing results” so far. “It has been working great for its current use, the GPS mapping is fantastic. From an operational standpoint, our Foremen love the app because it allows them to see when a ticket was produced, where the truck is in transit, and how their operation is progressing minute by minute.”
 
When asked how has the service been? “The service and support has been fantastic, 11 out of 10.  There are a lot of great people working for Earthwave that are knowledgeable, prompt and courteous. One situation that comes to mind this year: Our first DOT project coming out of C-19 lockdown, we needed to utilize the E-Ticketing feature and it was realized very early on that the JMF number was not on the tickets. I called up Nik and explained what was needed and by the end of the day, they had it included.”
 
Topics: Case studies Testimonials & Quotes Materials Management Solution

The True Value of Telematics

What you can do to keep your equipment moving, not missing

Topics: heavy equipment maintenance Case studies Testimonials & Quotes Construction Management Solution

Hamilton-Hinkle Paving Utilizes Real-Time Mobile App for Paving

Hamilton-Hinkle Paving Company located in Georgetown, Kentucky, is a full-service paving contractor that specializes in residential, commercial and industrial paving. Mike Butler has been with the company for just over 10 years and is a Project Manager/Estimator. Hamilton-Hinkle came onboard with FleetWatcher two years ago and uses it primarily to track their materials delivery to and from the jobsite, monitoring specifically their plant production and truck locations without, as Mike notes, “having to call the asphalt plant multiple times a day”. 

Just recently, they also began using it to deliver e-tickets to the Kentucky Department of Transportation during COVID-19. “I was very pleased how easy the set up was to get this started, all our setup was done over the phone with plant and quarry personnel. The Earthwave Technologies staff were very responsive and made setup easy for us. The KYTC inspectors have been able to get their information on their phones using the app and website and I have not had much feedback from DOT personnel so far which tells me it's working. I have only had one call with an issue that was corrected within 1 hour. That’s pretty amazing customer service!

Does Mike and his team have a favorite feature? “Probably our favorite feature is tracking material loads and plant production in real-time on the app. Our foreman has fallen in love with being able to pick up his phone and know immediately how much material he has out, where it is on the road, and when his last load is coming to the jobsite. He lets me know quickly if the app is not working for some reason, which is not often.”

How has the customer experience and support been? “ I would give service and support a 10 out of 10.  I have not had a problem so far that was not able to be corrected and fixed quickly at that. Just today I was experiencing a problem with making my jobs inactive on the Fleetwatcher website. I contacted Adam and Matt by email and within an hour the problem was fixed. You can’t ask for better service than that.”

Topics: Case studies Testimonials & Quotes E-Ticketing Materials Management Solution

Mago Embraces E-Ticketing with FleetWatcher in Kentucky

Family- owned since 1951, Mago Construction Company, LLC., headquartered in Bardstown, Kentucky, has asphalt plant and rock quarry locations throughout the state. They specialize in hot mix asphalt and cold mix asphalt; aggregates; road construction and asphalt paving services. 

Greg Reinert has been a part of the Mago team since 1981 working as an IT Consultant where he assists with initial implementation of new technology. Greg was a part of FleetWatcher’s integration when they onboarded it in July 2019 due to a contract request for a KYTC (Kentucky Transportation Cabinet) job. After the pilot was finished they became a customer and primarily use it for e-ticketing, having done a few DOT jobs since. 

What was the initial implementation and training like? “As with all new systems we ran into a few glitches, but had great support from Earthwave. I think everyone found it easy to use. Service and support is unsurpassed. The other day (early morning 7 a.m.), I emailed Sonia to see if she would call me later for a couple questions, within minutes she had responded to my email and we were on the phone. Everyone at Earthwave has been easy to work with and are always willing to provide a level of support that is hard to find.”

Where are they at with integration currently?  “We have all 9 asphalt plants integrated and the DOT will use FleetWatcher as the primary tool to get ticket information. Due to the Covid-19 virus outbreak we have been unable to fully implement FleetWatcher in our hauling fleet but even with partial implementation we believe it will help us get more efficient use of our resources.”

To schedule a demo, click here.

Topics: Case studies Testimonials & Quotes E-Ticketing Materials Management Solution

Life made easier at Allan Myers with FleetWatcher

Allan Myers, founded in 1939 is the largest heavy civil construction company and materials provider in the Mid-Atlantic with 8 regional offices, 19 asphalt and aggregate plants and 5 active quarries. Headquartered in Worcester, P.A. their services include: design-build, site development, transportation, water and asphalt and aggregate production.

Topics: Case studies Testimonials & Quotes Materials Management Solution

Learn how The Shelly Company Reduced Their CPT by 18%

  As FleetWatcher enters it's 20th Anniversary in 2020, we want to take a moment and highlight one of our loyal customers and share how their operations have improved since implementing our software.
 

The Shelly Company is Ohio’s leading limestone, concrete and asphalt paving company with more than 90 locations, servicing 81 of 88 counties in the state. The Twinsburg location has been using FleetWatcher just under 8 years and Chris Tomasch has been a part of the implementation since the very beginning. Chris is a Logistics Manager, overseeing the delivery of one million tons of asphalt and three million tons of aggregate every year.

Chris notes the changes he has seen: "We have excellent visibility of our fleet. We are able to identify any trucking issues in real-time allowing us to respond accordingly. FleetWatcher gives us accurate performance data which we can use for determining truck demand, reducing wait times and managing brokers. With the implementation and improvements in visibility of FleetWatcher we have reduced our cost per ton 18% over the past 4 years."

What is his favorite feature? "The best feature is the new “Quick Edit” feature of the shift tickets.  We are able to make fast, accurate adjustments with minimal effort. With the mobile app we have been able to better control last load outs, reducing the need to send trucks back to the plant to hold. Being able to track a job from a phone or I-Pad significantly reduces the time spent calling to find a truck."

What has their customer service experience been like? "Every time I reach out with a question or concern I get a response quickly, usually same day. Just this week I had 5 new trucks set up and none of them were tracking. I contacted Nik to see if he could determine the issue. I had a response in 10 minutes and was able to get them tracking. It’s also very helpful when their team makes a site visit, it gives our team a better understanding of the function and tools we need to be successful.

"There are many choices of GPS tracking programs available. FleetWatcher is very user-friendly and allows us to do more than just see where our trucks travel. We are able to set the parameters we want, to gather the data we need in a format we can use." 

Topics: Case studies Testimonials & Quotes Materials Management Solution

New Customer Boh Brothers Construction Finds Success with FleetWatcher

Based and founded in New Orleans, Boh Bros. Construction Co. is a family-owned, third-generation company that has completed thousands of heavy civil, industrial, and marine construction projects throughout the Southeast United States since 1909. They began a pilot with FleetWatcher in July of this year and just recently came on board as a new customer. How did they decide to invest in FleetWatcher? James Breland, Operations Manager of their Asphalt Department notes: "The market for asphalt work continues to be very competitive in our area, and we continuously search for ways to help optimize our operations. We were looking for ways to improve our hauling costs, and after many meetings with the FleetWatcher team, we felt FleetWatcher’s Material Management Solution (MMS) would be the right tool to help us do this."

Topics: Case studies Testimonials & Quotes Materials Management Solution

Hubbard Construction Improves Their Trucker Behavior with FleetWatcher

Hubbard-1

As one of the largest heavy civil contractors and one of the largest asphalt producers in Florida, Hubbard Construction Company (HCC)  is owned by Eurovia (a subsidiary of VINCI) based in Orlando, Florida with Divisions located in Jacksonville, Tampa and Lakeland. Founded in 1920, HCC is a multi-faceted general contracting company that performs design build and bid build projects throughout the State of Florida. The scope of their work  includes large design build infrastructure, heavy highway construction, highway maintenance, bridge construction, bridge repair, asphalt supply and heavy civil site projects. 

Topics: Case studies Testimonials & Quotes

Gallagher Asphalt Sees Immediate Results Using Fleetwatcher

Repeat Job Provides Comparison Data and $60,000 to the Bottom Line!

When the management at Gallagher Asphalt made the decision to purchase Fleetwatcher, they expected immediate results. So when a "repeat" paving job was kicked-off, management knew this would be an opportunity for a good comparison.

"Each year, a village near Chicago paves several roads, typically taking 5-6 weeks to complete. We did this job last year and were doing what was essentially the same job this year - same number of streets, same mix, same distance, same bid. The only difference was having Fleetwatcher installed," says Jonkman. 

The result? Last year, Gallagher finished the job $60,000 over budget on trucking costs. This year, the company finished $500 under budget!

Topics: Load Cycle Analysis Paving Operations Case studies Testimonials & Quotes

Earthwave Customer, RIPA, Talks About Fleetwatcher Benefits

Komatsu America recently did an article with Earthwave Technologies customer, Rich Fuist of RIPA Associates. Rich talks about some of the benefits they have seen with the use of Fleetwatcher. Here is an excerpt from the article:

Topics: Construction telematics Earthwave Technologies Case studies Testimonials & Quotes