ForConstructionPros.com

During an economic downturn when the funds to purchase new equipment are scarce, it's important to be vigilant over your existing fleet. This includes deterring theft and optimizing maintenance. Fortunately, there are many fleet management tools available to help you do that.

We asked four leading system providers what a fleet management system can do for rental businesses and here's what they had to say:

Q: How can a fleet management system help rental businesses deter theft?

A: Mark Bittner, Topcon, developer of Topcon Tierra - "Topcon Tierra offers geofencing. It has a motion sensor with an internal battery backup that allows detection and reporting of unauthorized movement even when the machine is turned off or on a trailer. Users can locate a machine at the touch of a button. Tierra also offers a "curfew" feature which alerts managers of unauthorized machine use outside the normal hours of operation. There is also the Remote Anti-Start feature that prevents thieves from driving unattended machines."

A: Bob DeAngelis, Senior Director for LoJack's Commercial Division - "LoJack's "LoJack's Ruggedized Stolen Vehicle Recovery system for construction equipment is based on Radio Frequency (RF) technology. RF enables stolen equipment to be found - even if they are hidden in a steel container, a tunnel or concrete garage, in dense foliage or in a chop shop. The LoJack System is also directly integrated with police, who use Police Tracking Computers (PTCs) to find and recover stolen equipment. This real-time communication delivers unprecedented precision in tracking and recovery. Since entering the construction market in 2000, the company has recovered more than $100 million in LoJack-equipped stolen construction assets-plus the value of other stolen non-LoJack equipped construction equipment police recovered in chop shops and theft rings."

A: Tony Nicoletti, DPL America, developer of the Titan Equipment Monitoring System - "We have multiple layers of theft protection: Rental houses can locate an asset in real time, anytime from any Internet-connected device (computer, Blackberry, iPhone, etc.). We offer a 'homing beacon' function that sends out a new location automatically every two minutes, which creates a trail on the map for the police to follow in the instance of theft. The Titan also has geofence (invisible boundary) alarms as well as a customer-defined curfew for unauthorized use or movement, which immediately contacts the owner's cell phone. Rental houses are also empowered to remotely disable any machine from starting if it is to be stolen."