Aussie Excavators Plant Hire is a family-owned and operated business. They are trusted earthmoving providers who have been servicing the Brisbane and South East Queensland region for over 30 years. They set themselves apart from their competition through their commitment to customer business growth and providing professional service that exceeds expectations 24/7. Specifically through their reliability, flexibility, and consistency of their work. They also have a strong Zero Harm Policy to promote safety onsite.
Leanne Sullivan, Director of Aussie Excavators Plant Hire knew that technology was key to future-proofing their business. Her allocator and Health and Safety Officer started looking for digital systems to manage their operations.
Moving to the cloud
“We originally had a server-based allocating software but it got to the point where it wasn’t working effectively and having a solely allocating-based software wasn’t enough. We still had to make calls and texts to notify crews of their jobs and all their safety forms and timesheets were still paper-based. In the office, we just had boxes upon boxes on jobsite paperwork.” – Lis Bowden, Health and Safety Officer at Aussie Excavators Plant Hire.
When we came across Assignar, it had the additional functions we were seeking from a digital system. Specifically, digital timesheets and forms, compliance management, asset management, and allocations. As Assignar is a cloud-based operations software, it meant that any of our team can access crucial jobsite information on the go. With our old system, we had to make all the updates in the office because it was server-based. It really restricted our ability to update on the fly.
Digitizing compliance management
At Aussie Excavators Plant Hire, we are really focused on being paperless and are working towards that. Prior to implementing Assignar, we had a physical file and excel sheet with everyone’s competencies. Now, all our safety documentation from verification of competency (VOC) to licenses and tickets are stored in Assignar. We had to look into the files and see who was outstanding. Our operators can view all their competencies via the mobile app as well as safety forms, maintenance history, and plant risk assessment.
To ensure that important safety documentation is completed, our forms are compulsory upon timesheet submission. Once submitted, we receive the data in real-time. This is a powerful tool for our fleet manager and workshop advisor, as they receive the pre-start form results straight away as opposed to once a week.
“Given the distribution of our jobs, our operators used to come back to the yard once a week to drop off their pre-starts, timesheets and fuel sheets. Now we receive all this operational and safety data in real-time.”
Allocating with mobility
Despite having a digital system before Assignar, the clunky nature of our legacy system proved very challenging. Being server-based meant that our allocators had to print out the allocations sheet before leaving the office, so they could see their schedule. In addition, a lot of the allocation was based on the allocator’s memory as it didn’t account for the operator’s competencies. The system didn’t integrate with anything and restricting access to only the office really impact the workload of our allocators.
Our old system didn’t really hold a lot of information and it was hard to share that information with everyone. Once you leave the office, you don’t really know what is going on. Now with Assignar, being mobile has made it a lot easier for our allocators. As a 24/7 business, everyone can be on the same page because the data stored on the scheduler is live, so you know it is right. It has had a massive impact in terms of visibility and communicating any last-minute changes to jobs. Our team also uses Assignar’s scheduler as a business development tool, as our business development managers can see what is available and how long our crews and machines are scheduled out for.
Assignar and our team
Onboarding Assignar happened really quickly. We were looking at a couple of systems at the time and Assignar was the best option for us. Once we signed we had online training sessions with our Customer Success Manager and over the course of 3 months, we slowly phased out our old system whilst implementing Assignar.
The system is not that hard to work out and the Customer Success team was accessible via the phone, email, and intercom. It is more about dedicating that time internally and having the initiative the maximize the most out of the platform.
During this time, we tested modules with team members and trialed it with key members before onboarding Assignar across this business. We had toolbox talks and were able to sit with our operators and explain certain modules and processes. Now our business operations are reliant on Assignar.
“We have used Assignar in our bigger tenders and won them, and I do think that having Assignar has been an advantage.”
