New research from UCR Ventures, the developers of the Stockpile Reports Lite application, has found that when it comes to measuring stockpiles of material, its iPhone app could potentially save construction firms thousands of pounds’ worth of delays and disputes. Fights over the amount of material bought, sold, produced, or delivered have been a long-standing battle in the quarrying and construction industry. Resolving those disputes requires bringing in measurement crews, taking days, and often costing around £1,000. Disputes are common in the UK construction industry and the National Construction Contracts and Law Survey, found that 30% of firms had been involved in at least one dispute in a 12 month period alone.
“Businesses can potentially stop costly disputes and save thousands of pounds by using technology such as the Stockpile Reports Lite app,” explains David Boardman, CEO of Stockpile Reports. “Construction professionals can now get measurements quickly, before an expensive measurement team even has time to arrive on site. The Stockpile Reports Lite app also helps end the age-old battle over material volumes, creating smooth, accurate transactions for everyone. Stockpile inventory can be done quickly and on site teams can be empowered to take measurements as and when required.”
After downloading the app (search ‘Stockpiles Lite’ in the app store), users point the iPhone camera at the surface of the pile and walk around its perimeter. The app captures high resolution imagery that is then uploaded to the cloud and processed to generate a report. Independent tests have shown the measurements to be within 1% to 2% of LiDAR (laser measurement) surveys. Companies who need to scale inventory management across their entire operation can upgrade to the Stockpile Reports enterprise version, giving them unlimited measurements, the ability to measure larger piles, bunkered material measurements, carry out aerial measurements via drone, and managing all the data and insights across all their locations via the Stockpile Reports enterprise web portal.
