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How An Excavation Contractor Unearthed Rental Spend Savings

March 6, 2022

Two EquipmentShare workers in Office

Using a fleet management solution that is provided to all rental customers, an excavation company owner optimizes his fleet.

“We have planes these days where you can hit a button, find an airport, check the weather, make an emergency call and the plane lands itself. And yet we have guys out here struggling to know the location of a bulldozer,” said Bartley Stevenson, owner of Milam Excavating Corporation, a residential and commercial excavation company based in Columbia, Missouri.

Stevenson works hard alongside his team every day to get the job done, which involves moving dirt and rocks and prepping the area for building. 

“I work on all types of build projects and with most, if not all, of the contractors in my surrounding area,” Stevenson said. “I need to make sure my team and my equipment are always ready to go, because one misstep can turn into a bad game of telephone, which spreads like wildfire in this business.” 

The Fleet Optimization Challenge

One of the greatest challenges in construction is being able to control all the moving pieces. If one machine goes down because of maintenance issues, or another gets stolen, or a bill doesn’t get paid, it has a domino effect on the entire project. 

“There is a lot out there in terms of telematics systems, but nothing that gives me the visibility and insight into my entire fleet, which is a wide variety of brands, makes and models,” Stevenson said. “It was only after renting with EquipmentShare that I learned I could also use their T3 technology on my own equipment.”

EquipmentShare’s T3 Technology 

EquipmentShare’s rental platform is powered by T3 technology, an operating system that tracks, monitors and manages equipment, vehicles and other gear on the jobsite. Customers who rent from EquipmentShare can access insightful data about their rentals, such as GPS location, machine health, upcoming rental cycle and spend. Rental customers also can control access to the equipment through keypads, a solution that replaces universal keys, as well as set up geofencing for projects and helpful alerts. T3 is OEM agnostic and can be installed on owned assets, as well as integrated with existing Association of Equipment Management Professionals (AEMP) feeds.

Within minutes of having T3 hardware installed on his fleet, Stevenson could see all the information on his equipment, as well as his rentals, side-by-side, in one place.

“Utilization ties directly in with job-costing,” Stevenson said. “It lets us know how much it’s going to cost me to move the machines around, how much time the machine has spent on a particular jobsite or if we have too many underutilized machines on a jobsite. There could be five machines on a jobsite for three months, when we really only needed four for two of the months. But we left all five there because nobody knew any better. By optimizing my own fleet with T3, I reduced my rental spend by 20 to 30%.” 

An All-in-One Telematics Solution

Stevenson now has more control over his fleet. And when he sees in T3 he needs to supplement equipment, he can easily add rentals to his jobsite with the click of a button. 

“For the first time, I did not have to log into three or four different telematics systems to get an idea of what’s going on,” Stevenson said. “T3 gets your right hand talking to your left hand. It is a game changer. I was always taught that business can be simple if you earn more than you spend. So it doesn’t matter if T3 costs a dollar or $40 as long as I’m saving more or earning more than that.”

EquipmentShare branches are located throughout the country and our team members want to be your go-to partner for the long haul. We are dedicated to solving construction problems — whether that’s through rentals, T3 technology or service. We want to earn your business, help you enhance your overall productivity and ultimately save you money. We don't want to lock you in on a long rental contract and make you pay for machines you aren’t using. We give customers the tech and insight they need to make better and smarter business decisions. We want to help you take control.

We know it’s not what you expect from an equipment rental company — it’s better. 

Learn more about how T3 technology can power your operations.

About EquipmentShare

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Columbia, Mo., EquipmentShare is a nationwide construction technology and equipment solutions provider dedicated to transforming the construction industry through innovative tools, platforms and data-driven insights. By empowering contractors, builders and equipment owners with its proprietary technology, T3, EquipmentShare aims to drive productivity, efficiency and collaboration across the construction sector. With a comprehensive suite of solutions that includes a fleet management platform, telematics devices and a best-in-class equipment rental marketplace, EquipmentShare continues to lead the industry in building the future of construction.