Traditionally in mining, the focus has been on the everyday running costs of large machines operating on site while the daily costs associated with light vehicle operations is often overlooked. However, RCT says it has become apparent through client feedback that light vehicles operating inefficiently are proving to be very costly. As companies start to focus on cost savings for these vehicles, RCT has designed a monitoring solution to address this demand.
The mining fleet management market is adopting fleet monitoring to increase productivity for its light vehicles and RCT has come up with the new EarthTrack® Light Vehicle Machine Monitoring system to deliver machine and operator data from multiple light vehicles across a mining site. “It empowers management with the information needed to improve light vehicle operations to lower maintenance costs from damage, reduce unplanned maintenance and deliver an overall safer operation by encouraging better driving habits,” said RCT’s Global Operations Manager, Dave Holman.
The solution is scalable and consists of automated reporting, operator login, pre- and post-start checklists, engine, speed and impact monitoring. “We’ve had reports from some clients that they are seeing about A$10,000 a month in damage due to vehicle abuse and driving conditions and that is on top of the programmed maintenance costs. So the EarthTrack® Light Vehicle Machine Monitoring aims at eliminating these costs,” he said.
The end-user will receive an automated summary report on events and violations, early warnings on engine conditions to ensure preventative maintenance can be carried out. Reports can be delivered daily, weekly or monthly depending on preference.
“Managers will have access to information that they normally wouldn’t have which in turn empowers them to make smart, cost-saving decisions going forward,” said Holman. The EarthTrack® Light Vehicle Machine Monitoring system is designed to fit any make or model of light vehicle used on site including utes and personnel carriers. Updates are delivered via a smart device and only require Wi-Fi or cellular to work. Data is live to the point of last transmission to the cloud and in instances where the network coverage is not available, data will be logged and uploaded once a connection is made.
The system can monitor as many vehicles as required with website access hierarchy; companies can monitor an entire company fleet based on regions or sites if deployed at multiple locations. “As with all of RCT’s products and solutions, the EarthTrack® Light Vehicle Machine Monitoring system is backed by ongoing support.”
