[QUOTABLE] Dealers: Contractors Want You to Sell Service Using Their Telematics Data

Twenty-one-year fleet-management veteran encourages equipment manufacturers to get their dealers monitoring machines and acting when their's opportunity to prevent downtime

Dan Samford recently left Herzog Contracting Corp., after a 21-year career managing the Missouri-based firm's 3,300-unit fleet, to launch his own equipment consulting business. He has been one of the construction industry's leaders in implementing equipment-management solutions using telematics systems.
Dan Samford recently left Herzog Contracting Corp., after a 21-year career managing the Missouri-based firm's 3,300-unit fleet, to launch his own equipment consulting business. He has been one of the construction industry's leaders in implementing equipment-management solutions using telematics systems.

“I would much rather a distributor call me and say, ‘Hey, we just saw a fault code on your machine. We’ve got a service truck in the area; we’ve got the parts on the shelf. Can we come up there around noon and work on the machine over lunch?’” Dan Samford, a 21-year equipment-management veteran at Herzog Contracting Corp., told the AEM Customer Support Council at its joint meeting with the Association of Equipment Management Professionals Asset Management Symposium last month in Cleveland, OH. 

“In most cases, I would have responded, ‘Can you come any earlier? Let’s not wait ‘til noon.’

In regards to equipment-dealer involvement in monitoring customers’ machines through telematics, Samford says, “Some get it; most don’t.”

“Most equipment users want that involvement. You’re not invading their territory. Even though they may have their own mechanics, you’re going to find that they want that proactive stance from their equipment distributor.”    

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