Do you know where your GSE is? Who’s operating it? Does it have enough fuel? What are the fluid levels? If only it had a phone so you could ask for yourself.
While it may not be able to make a call, Access Control Group’s Advanced has all the other sophistications of a smartphone, including text messaging, bringing telematics to GSE so the answers to all the questions above, and more, are at your fingertips.
“From the beginning, we knew we wanted to create a telematics device that was feature rich but also easy-to-use,” says Arun Patel, CEO at Access Control Group. “So, we designed the screen size on Advanced to be a better user experience for operators so they can interact with ease and go about their business. Also, we knew from years of industry experience that Advanced had to be durable enough to withstand the rigorous work environments it would be used. So, with its durable design and clean interface, Advanced became one of the only telematics devices that had the sophistication of a smartphone but the durability of a hammer.”
Since its introduction to the market two years ago, Advanced has been a one-size-fits-all telematics solution, bringing safety features to and relaying critical information from GSE. Though it’s not limited to only GSE, Advanced can work with practically any powered asset – from forklifts to golf carts and anything in between.
“From the start, it was designed to operate on any powered equipment regardless of brand, make or model,” says Patel.
By pairing with AssetPro 360, Access’s cloud application, Advanced delivers real-time data and reports on productivity, usage, safety checks and exceptions, and alarms while also monitoring user-defined key performance indicators (KPI).
Key features of Advanced include:
- Operator authentication, ensuring only the right, qualified personnel can operate the equipment.
- Safety certification tracking which tracks an operator’s training certificate and reminds them to recertify to prevent those with lapse safety credentials from operating equipment.
- OSHA compliant safety checklists that require operators to complete a safety checklist before operating a vehicle.
- The monitoring of up to eight parameters such as hour meters, overheating, low fuel and low fluids.
- Push notifications to keep stakeholders in the loop so they can make immediate and proactive decisions.
- Location tracking with GPS and geofencing, and the ability to shut down equipment in the event of excessive idle time – conserving a vehicle’s battery.
- Two-way text messaging, allowing communication between equipment operator and manager across a worksite.
For GSE operators, Advanced offers features with the unique challenges of the industry in mind – such as impact and sharp turn monitoring, notifying managers of potential reckless driving, and a load sensing feature, where an alarm is triggered when a load exceeds the equipment’s weight limits.
Then there’s Advanced’s GSE pooling function.
“GSE is expensive to acquire and maintain. Advanced offers a unique pooling feature to maximize GSE use. A GSE owner or handler can assign the same GSE to multiple companies, airlines, or service providers (tenants). Each tenant has a unique ID to log in, and their usage is recorded,” explains Patel. “AssetPro 360 can be configured to bill each tenant for their usage. Billing is done automatically and can be sent via email to each tenant. Access to GSE can be restricted as desired by the GSE owner.”
By sharing GSE, airlines can lower operating costs while remaining competitive for routes by not having to invest in GSE that may only be used for a short period of time.
Patel says that Advanced’s features are regularly updated as the company receives feedback from their users. One recent update was made to help safety teams manage incidents.
“Safety is one of the major concerns at airports. Tracking all safety incidents at the GSE level gives GSE managers the ability to manage all safety incidents on one platform – less legwork and no distributed information to track,” Patel says. “As the incident occurs, the safety supervisor can fill out an incident report directly on Advanced.”
Advanced’s intuitiveness extends to its installation, as well. Installation is done in 45 minutes to an hour. For access control, two wires that makeup Advanced’s relay need to be installed after the ignition switch of the vehicle and tap into the inputs/signals the users wants to be measured. For power, Advanced runs off of a vehicle’s battery and can be left connected to the vehicle while not in use.
Advanced is one of three telematics solutions in a line of products offered by Access Control Group. There’s also Vital – a more basic device – and then Ultimate, a larger and slightly more robust and feature-packed product.
“Low cost, low priority GSE can be monitored with Vital, lowering the overall cost of asset tracking while remaining in control of their fleet,” elaborates Patel. “Ultimate is a rugged Windows tablet that provides additional features such as a 7” daylight readable LCD touch panel and variety of integration options that are compatible with customers’ existing business applications.”
To support the rising number of airlines choosing to “go green” by moving to electric GSE (eGSE), Access offers CellTrac, a cloud based battery management device that helps eGSE owners maximize battery performance and extend battery life. Batteries can be costy, and it’s literally a black box. With CellTrac, eGSE owners have unprecedented visibility so proactive changes can be made to protect their eGSE investment.
All four products work with AssetPro 360 to provide greater insight into both eGSE and GSE operations.
“The primary advantage of AssetPro 360 is it works with any of our devices for GSE and eGSE tracking," Patel says. "Our goal with AssetPro 360 is to provide one platform to manage powered and non-powered assets so GSE managers can streamline fleet management and optimize scarce maintenance resources.”
