Members of the Association of Equipment Management Professionals are working on a certification app for the standard telematics code the group has developed for construction machinery.
“It’s like a Good Housekeeping Seal,” Stan Orr, the Glenwood, Colo.-based association’s executive director, told ENR during a July 14 phone interview. “We want to make sure our members—the equipment customer—is getting what they are told they are going to get.”
When complete, the certification program will enable equipment manufacturers, suppliers, owners and end-users to verify that a machine’s wireless application program interface complies with the standard’s data-stream protocols.
“We think it will work like this: I send a test feed to this program, and the program automatically says, 'Yes, you are compliant,' or 'No, this line of code needs to be looked at,'” Orr explained, adding that AEMP is still seeking international accreditation for the group's telematics standard.
AEMP is considering offering the certification program as a web-based tool that could generate additional revenue for the group, which includes fleet managers of major construction firms. The program is due to be out by the end of the year, Orr noted.
Since the latest AEMP standard was released last year, manufacturers and aftermarket suppliers have continued to expand their telematics offerings. Most recently, John Deere expanded the base subscription for its JDLink Ultimate telematics service on July 7 to five years from three for production-class machinery.
The AEMP standard, which Deere claims to follow, allows fleet managers to collect operating data on their own rather than logging into multiple brand websites. Being able to verify that a brand is compliant could help manufacturers and dealers close a sale.
"It really helps these end-users make a decision," Orr said.
