Danish construction tech firm Trackunit has teamed up with Swiss software developer Trifork to launch a free, online index that tracks construction machine use on a weekly basis around the world.
Together with rental and equipment manufacturers, they created the "Downtime Index" using data gathered by telemetry from 150,000 off-highway construction vehicles in order to gauge how many machines are working, allowing weekly and year-on-year comparisons.
The index, which is publicly available, also compares regional performance over time in the US, Germany, France, UK and 18 other countries.
Comparisons are made against a base point of 100, which denotes all machines in use from the start of monitoring in January.
According to Trackunit: "The site uses simple metrics to provide a non-technical user-friendly interface, offering broad industry trends. The insights available decode the industry’s current situation providing actionable intelligence for organisations across the construction value chain, from OEMs, logistics, and rental companies to contractors, trade bodies and government departments."
Mathias Frost, director of software products at Trackunit, commented: "Since we are not in a position to manufacture PPE or ventilators to assist the fight against Covid-19, at Trackunit we are determined to do what we can – donate our data and analytics expertise.
"The Downtime Index offers near real-time insights for the construction industry at a time when situations are evolving rapidly and differently from nation to nation. We are currently calling for more partners to submit data and contribute to the Index."
The index presently shows that machine use in all regions is 11 points lower than during the corresponding period last year, which organisers said is a slightly smaller dip than they expected.
Image: The website uses telemetric information from machines to compile an activity index (Chris Van Lennep/Dreamstime)
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