Northeast Paving is a full-service paving and construction contractor that serves the Northeastern region of the US. The company is a long-time customer of FleetWatcher and recently shared their experience with using the product during their work on the I-90 Blandford projects in Massachusetts. Project Engineer, Johnniel Gomez, explained that before using FleetWatcher some issues that the company faced were lack of communication between the field and the plant throughout shifts. “Trucks ‘hiding’ or taking detours throughout the shift, especially at night, and some trucks creating inaccurate time cards and reporting inaccurate information to get paid”.
With the help of FleetWatcher, the company has been able to crack down on these issues by using FleetWatcher as a “communication tool in the field and the office, so anybody from the plant foreman to the paving foreman to the operation manager knows how many tons were at the plant, how many trucks were where, when we should be expecting trucks, etc”. FleetWatcher also helped the company by providing real-time GPS tracking, allowing the operation manager to see where the trucks were when they got loaded, and when they were dumped so they could “figure out where a truck was hiding if they were taking the scenic route or not working but reporting hours on a timecard that he/she hauled material to the project”.
When asked if there were any specific projects in which the company greatly benefited from using FleetWatcher, Johnniel responded, “I think my two I-90 Blandford projects really stand out to us in terms of usability, functionality, communication and shift to shift improvements. On both projects, we were able to cut down on trucks while increasing our tons per shift. The paving and plant foreman were always checking to see what was what and where all the trucks were so we could pave at 35 FPM and keep the plant running at 400 TPH throughout the night. Both projects were a huge success in part because we had this great tool in our back pocket that we could use in live-action.” Johnniel further explained, “...at the end of the shifts, we would review in the office and see what tweaks we needed to make; whether it was staggering the truck start times, cutting down on trucks when needed, etc. All in all, I think we did really well on a lot of our projects that utilized FleetWatcher this season but the I-90 Blandford projects definitely benefited the most due to it being a high profile project for us, paving at night and trying to get as much ton on the ground as possible every night we were out there”.
With the help of FleetWatcher, Northeast Paving has been able to increase production and reduce costs through the duration of these projects. The company is looking forward to exploring new features, stating “I think every feature has a great purpose and different ways to look at info and data whether it be just seeing the breadcrumb trail on the home page, the LCA graph or even the plant production.”
