A truck earns when it moves. A backhoe loader earns when its engine runs, often without moving a hundred metres all day. That one difference is why ordinary vehicle tracking, set up to show speed and distance, tells a contractor very little about an excavator. This guide covers what to track on construction equipment, how to wire it, and what the reports should show.
What a contractor needs to know
- Engine hours per machine per day. For rental billing, operator payment and service schedules. A rented excavator billed at ₹1,800 per hour needs an hour count both sides trust.
- Whether the machine ran outside working hours. Night operation on a hired machine is either unauthorised use or a rental the owner never saw.
- Idle time with the engine on. An excavator idles 30 to 40 percent of the day on most sites, burning 3 to 5 litres an hour. Knowing which machines and which operators idle most is the cheapest fuel saving available.
- Which site the machine is on. With machines moving between sites on trailers, the dispatcher's whiteboard is usually a day behind.
- Movement when it should be parked. Theft of machines and of batteries, diesel and hydraulic parts from parked machines happens at night, on sites with one guard.
- Service due by hours. Oil, filters and hydraulic service are due by engine hours, not kilometres.
Wiring the device
A standard wired GPS tracker works, with three details that matter on machines:
- Ignition sense on the key switch, not just power. Engine hours are counted from the ignition line, so it must reflect the engine running, not the battery being connected.
- Power straight from the battery with an inline fuse, and the device mounted inside the cab or behind a panel. Machines have vibration and dust that kill loosely fitted devices.
- An internal backup battery so the device still reports when the main battery is disconnected or removed. A thief's first move is to pull the battery.
For machines that are regularly loaded on trailers, a device with an accelerometer gives a movement alert even when the ignition is off. For high-value excavators and cranes a second, hidden battery tracker as a backup is worth the ₹3,000.
Geofences do most of the work
Draw a geofence around each site. Everything useful follows from it:
- The visit report shows which machines were on which site, from when to when. That is the daily deployment record, with no phone calls.
- An exit alert fires when a machine leaves the site. In working hours that is a transfer the dispatcher knows about; at 11 p.m. it is a theft in progress.
- The hours report filtered by site gives machine hours per project for costing and for client billing.
Add a geofence on the yard and on each fuel point, and the picture is complete.
Hour and idle reports
For each machine and day the report should give: first start, last stop, total engine hours, moving hours, idle hours (engine on, machine not moving) and the number of starts. Rental companies share the engine-hours column with the client as the billing basis. Contractors compare idle hours across operators.
On SaralTrack the engine-hours and idle figures come from the ignition line and GPS movement, and the daily travel summary and stops reports show them per machine. Alerts on ignition at unusual hours cover night running.
Parking mode for machines left on site
Most construction machines spend the night where they worked. SaralTrack's parking mode arms automatically when a machine has been still for a set number of minutes with the ignition off. If it then moves, is lifted onto a trailer, loses main power or reports a vibration alarm, the owner gets a towing alert with the location and the direction of travel, repeated while the machine keeps moving. When it stops, a second alert gives the new position. For a machine that must not run at night, the strict setting also raises an alert on ignition.
Fuel on machines
Fuel sensors are more common on machines than on trucks because tanks are filled from a bowser on site and there is no pump receipt. Where there is no sensor, the same full-tank method used for trucks works: record each fill in the fuel log, and compare litres per engine hour between fills. A machine that suddenly uses 20 percent more diesel per hour on the same job is either idling more or losing fuel. See how to catch fuel theft without a sensor.
Rental companies: one login per client
An equipment rental company has two audiences for the same data: its own operations team and the client who is paying by the hour. SaralTrack's company and branch structure gives each client a login that shows only their machines, with the hours report they are billed on. Resellers and larger rental fleets can put their own brand on it.
Frequently asked questions
Can GPS track engine hours on an excavator?
Yes. When the tracker's ignition input is wired to the machine's key switch, it records every engine start and stop, and the reports total engine hours, moving hours and idle hours per day.
Which GPS tracker is best for construction machines?
A wired device with an ignition input, an internal backup battery and an accelerometer, fitted inside the cab with a fused connection to the battery. Standard fleet trackers from Teltonika, Concox, Queclink and similar brands meet this.
How do I stop my JCB being used at night?
Set up a geofence on the site and a parking alert on the machine. An ignition, movement or power-cut alert outside working hours goes to your phone with the location, and the report shows every after-hours start.
Can my clients see the hours of the machines they hire?
Yes. Each client can have a login that shows only their machines and the engine-hours report used for billing.