Construction equipment management software › Heavy equipment maintenance software
Heavy equipment maintenance software: which tools can run the shop
Heavy equipment maintenance software schedules service by engine hours, turns defects into work orders, logs mechanics' time and parts against each machine, and keeps the history. HCSS Equipment360 and Trimble B2W Maintain are built for heavy civil shops; Fleetio Premium, Samsara and Tenna's maintenance add-on do the same, and GearJoT is free up to ten machines.
The five jobs a shop needs done
Strip the brochures away and a maintenance system earns its keep on five jobs. If a tool misses one you need, that job goes back to the whiteboard.
- Service by hours. Each machine carries its intervals (250, 500, 1,000 and 2,000 hours on most) and warns before the next one. The hours come from telematics, a tracker or someone reading the meter.
- Defects become work orders. A failed walk-around item or a fault code opens a repair request that can be assigned to a mechanic.
- Mechanic time. Labor is logged against the work order, ideally against a job or cost code too, so repairs can be charged back.
- Parts. Parts used on a work order come out of inventory, with reorder points and purchase orders.
- History. Every service, part and hour over the machine's life, for warranty claims, resale and the repair-or-replace call.
Eight tools against the five jobs
| Tool | Service by hours | Defects to work orders | Mechanic time | Parts inventory | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HCSS Equipment360 | Yes with cost codes, part requests and checklists | Yes inspections open work orders | Yes time cards per work order, synced to payroll | Yes parts, purchases, invoices, stock alerts | Quote |
| Trimble B2W Maintain | Yes from maker intervals; AEMP telematics can trigger it | Yes repair requests from shop or field | Yes tablet timecards | Yes by location and bin, deducted on use, multi-vendor POs, warranties | Quote |
| Tenna (maintenance add-on) | Yes by hours, mileage or time | Yes requests tracked to done; OEM and AEMP fault codes | Yes by equipment, job or cost code | Yes across locations | Quote |
| Fleetio | Yes every plan | Plan issues on every plan; work orders limited on Professional, full on Premium | Premium labor clock-in | Plan limited on Professional, full on Premium | $4, $7 or $10 a vehicle a month |
| Samsara | Yes usage-based | Yes work orders filled from inspection reports; fault code alerts | Not listed | Yes by location, low-stock alerts, purchase orders | Quote |
| Simply Fleet | Yes | Yes issues from inspections; work orders on Free and Advanced | Advanced technician management | Plan 3 parts on Free, unlimited on Advanced | Free for 5; $3 or $5 a vehicle a month |
| GearJoT | Yes maintenance tracking | Yes failed inspection to issue to task | Not listed | Not listed | Free for 10; then $7.50 to $4.92 a piece |
| Dozer | Yes next service from the hour meter | Partly repair tickets from a fault code; no inspection forms | No | No | Free for 10 machines; $99 a site |
Which one for which shop
One mechanic, under 25 machines
A full shop system is more than this shop needs. GearJoT covers service by hours, defects to work orders and history for free up to 10 pieces of gear (its site doesn't list mechanic time or parts); at 25 it costs $112.50 a month (15 paid pieces at $7.50). Simply Fleet Advanced, with work orders and parts, is $125 a month for 25 vehicles. Fleetio puts complete work orders on Premium, $250 a month for 25 at its 5-asset band rate, billed yearly.
A shop with a parts room
This is where Trimble B2W Maintain and HCSS Equipment360 earn their quotes: parts tracked by bin, deducted when they go on a work order, reordered across vendors, and warranties flagged before you pay for a covered part. Fleetio Premium adds purchase orders, low-stock alerts and parts warranty tracking at a published price.
A plant or mixed-asset team
General maintenance software (a CMMS) also handles heavy equipment, priced per user rather than per machine. MaintainX's Basic plan is free with unlimited work orders but only 2 repeating ones, so scheduled service needs Essential at $20 a user a month billed yearly ($25 monthly). It suits a team that maintains buildings and plant as well as machines. MaintainX pricing
Equipment billed to jobs
If repairs and machine time are charged to jobs, pick a tool that ties labor to cost codes: HCSS Equipment360 (cost codes on preventive maintenance, mechanic time synced to payroll) or Tenna (labor by equipment, job or cost code). Raken logs equipment use against cost codes in the field, but it isn't shop software.
A worked example: three machines coming due
Monday morning, three machines in a small fleet, five working days a week. The question every tool has to answer is the same: which one goes in the shop first, and what does it need?
| Machine | Hours today | Hours a week | Next service | Hours left | Working days left |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wheel loader | 1,236 | 30 | 1,250 h (250-hour level) | 14 | about 2 |
| Excavator | 1,962 | 40 | 2,000 h (2,000-hour level) | 38 | about 5 |
| Dozer | 2,470 | 20 | 2,500 h (500-hour level) | 30 | about 8 |
The loader is first by days, but the excavator is the big job: on a Cat dealer's plan the 2,000-hour level adds secondary and cab air filters and cooling hose checks to everything below it, and many machines change hydraulic oil there. A shop system turns each line into a scheduled work order with its parts kit, books the mechanic, and records the hour reading at service so the next one lands on the right mark. A lighter tool (Dozer, a spreadsheet) gets you the table above and stops there. The maintenance schedule guide has what each level includes.
Where Dozer fits
Dozer isn't shop software. Its Machines app keeps each machine's hours and next service (from a photo of the hour meter, a fleet spreadsheet or typing), flags machines within 50 hours of service, explains J1939 fault codes in plain words and opens a repair ticket on the machine. There are no work orders with parts and labor, no parts inventory and no inspection forms. For a foreman who needs the table above for up to 10 machines at no cost, it's enough; for a shop, pick from the first five rows. Dozer Machines
Also read
- Heavy equipment maintenance schedule: what happens at 250, 500, 1,000 and 2,000 hours.
- What equipment management software costs: monthly totals for 8, 25 and 60 machines.
- All ten tools compared, including tracking-first ones.
About this page
Published by Winding AI, Inc., the company that makes Dozer, one of the tools named here. Winding AI earns money when customers pay for Dozer, and nothing from links to other tools; links to Dozer carry a tag so Dozer can count visits from this page. Something wrong? Write to support@winding.ai.