Telematics, by design, give brains to construction equipment. Intelligence is engineered into the engine and operating systems to make the equipment perform better and live longer. While not quite comparable to 2001: A Space Odyssey's HAL-9000 supercomputer, telematics-equipped construction machines can be armed with the intelligence to know where they are, where they're supposed to be and what they're doing. These machines know when their oil is low, when their engine is running hot and when their gas tank is almost empty. They know when the engine is on when it should be off, and when the machine is idling when it could instead be shut down.

Telematics enable a rental machine to protect itself from abuse and optimize performance for as long as it is part of a rental fleet. Telematics watch that equipment very carefully, monitoring it for the moment when it's time to notify the owner or operator that the machine needs intervention — whether it be for a required maintenance point, the breach of a geofence that trips an alarm, or evidence that the machine was used after it was called off-rent, arming the rental company with the data it needs to correctly bill the client for all the time used. The added intelligence that telematics systems provide can help rental companies achieve significant savings and fast return on investment.

These telematics technologies are not brand new, but they are more widely available than ever before and also more easily integrated with most of today's rental management and other software systems. In addition, telematics are able to monitor more parameters and diagnose more machine issues than ever before. What once was a very expensive aftermarket technology is today more commonly found as a factory-installed option, particularly on big-ticket fleet items. And, to make it easier, OEMs such as Komatsu, John Deere, Hitachi, JLG, JCB, Volvo and Caterpillar are getting into the mix, offering onboard tele-matics systems to their latest product offerings and seeking out partnerships with telematics specialists such as Qualcomm, MasterTrak and others to achieve seamless back-office reporting and systems monitoring.

Why telematics?

One of the most obvious reasons to embrace telematics now is because of the added scrutiny with which a fleet owner will look at his or her equipment with telematics devices in place. These systems bring to light many ways to improve machine efficiency, whether it's lowered fuel consumption, improved maintenance schedules or additional revenue captured on rent. There is something to be gained from their use.