Construction equipment management software › Construction equipment telematics
Construction equipment telematics: hours, location and fault codes from every brand
Many newer machines already send hours, location, fuel and fault codes to their maker's portal, such as Cat VisionLink, John Deere JDLink, Komatsu Komtrax or Volvo CareTrack. To see a mixed fleet in one place, use software that reads the ISO 15143-3 (AEMP 2.0) feed each maker offers, and put aftermarket trackers only on older or unpowered equipment.
The mixed-fleet standard
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) and the Association of Equipment Management Professionals (AEMP) wrote a common format for machine data so an owner could pull every brand into one system instead of logging into each maker's website. ISO accepted it in 2016 as Part 3 of ISO 15143, the earthmoving machinery worksite data exchange standard (Construction Equipment Guide, July 22, 2016). People still call it AEMP 2.0.
The feed is a set of endpoints a telematics provider serves. One provider's documentation lists these (Proemion's ISO 15143-3 API):
| Data | What you do with it |
|---|---|
| Cumulative operating hours | Service due, without anyone reading the meter |
| Idle and non-productive idle hours | Idle cost, and machines to move to another job |
| Location and distance | Where it is, and whether it moved after hours |
| Fuel used and fuel remaining | Fuel cost per job, and when to send the fuel truck |
| Faults and caution codes | Repair before a breakdown |
| Engine condition, load factor, DPF regeneration and PTO hours | How hard the machine works, and aftertreatment health |
Not every maker sends every field for every model. Ask each maker or dealer which fields your serial numbers return, and what access costs, before you buy software to read them. Access has its own conditions: Fleetio's help center says its Caterpillar connection needs a VisionLink Connect Pro (or higher) subscription plus separate ISO 15143-3 API access, and that the credentials can take up to two weeks to get from the dealer (Fleetio's Caterpillar AEMP 2.0 article).
What a fault code says
Diesel machines report faults in the SAE J1939 format: an SPN that names the part or reading, and an FMI from 0 to 31 that says what is wrong with it. Makers add their own codes beyond the standard ones, which their dealers' tools explain. A few common standard codes, as Dozer's free lookup explains them:
| Code | Part | Meaning | Check first |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPN 100 FMI 1 | Engine oil pressure | Oil pressure is way too low; the engine may shut down | Stop the engine, check the oil level, don't run it until you know why |
| SPN 110 FMI 0 | Coolant temperature | Coolant is way too hot | Stop working it, idle a few minutes, shut down; check coolant level, fan belt, radiator fins |
| SPN 3251 FMI 0 | DPF pressure difference | The particulate filter is heavily loaded or the sensor reads wrong; the engine will derate | Read the soot load, run a parked regen if allowed, check the sensor hoses |
| SPN 3364 | DEF quality | The DEF is watered down, old or the wrong fluid | Test it with a refractometer; drain and refill if bad |
| SPN 5246 | SCR inducement | Power is limited because an emissions fault has been active too long | Find and fix the SCR code that started it; check DEF level and quality |
The useful part isn't the meaning, it's the routing: a code with a severity goes to the right person the moment it fires, with the machine and its hours attached. That needs a live feed. Without one, an operator reads the code off the dash and looks it up.
Which software reads which feeds
| Tool | Maker feeds | Own hardware | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue | 80+ GPS, OEM, ERP and maintenance integrations; works with existing telematics hardware; OEM fault codes | No | Quote |
| Trimble B2W Maintain | AEMP-compliant telematics, used to trigger preventive maintenance | No | Quote |
| Tenna | OEM telematics and AEMP integrations, fault codes | GPS trackers and Bluetooth tags | Quote |
| Samsara | Brings OEM data and its own devices into one platform | Gateways and asset tags | Quote |
| Fleetio | Native telematics integrations on every plan, including Caterpillar (AEMP 2.0) and John Deere Operations Center | None listed | $4 to $10 a vehicle a month |
| Simply Fleet | Imports vehicles, pulls odometer readings and turns fault codes into issues | No | $0.50 a vehicle a month add-on |
| Dozer | None linked yet: on the Company plan the app records a request (VisionLink, JDLink, Komtrax, Samsara and others); hours come from a photo of the hour meter or are typed in | No | Requests need the Company plan, $199 a month |
Getting a mixed fleet onto one screen
- List every machine by make, model, year and serial, and mark which have an active maker subscription. That list is the scope of the project.
- Ask each maker or dealer for API access to the ISO 15143-3 feed for those serials, and which fields come back.
- Pick software that reads every brand on your list. Ask for a test with two of your own serials, not a demo fleet.
- Put trackers only where no feed exists: older iron, trailers, attachments.
- Decide who gets which alert. A severity-1 code (stop the machine) should reach the operator and the shop; a service-due alert, the shop only.
Without any of this, Dozer covers the basics by hand: hours from a photo of the meter and fault codes looked up in plain words. Dozer's fault code lookup
Also read
- Construction equipment tracking software: trackers, tags and QR check-out.
- All ten tools compared.
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