Ed Bell Construction

Introduction

Ed Bell Construction Company offers a vast array of capabilities tailored to the heavy/highway and municipal reconstruction markets.

To keep its fleet of construction vehicles on the road and on the job, the company needs to ensure each one has up-to-date licensing and registration with the state of Texas. Given the growing size of its vehicle pool, this proved to be challenging when attempting to manage renewals using manual data entry in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

“There were some new government requirements about when we have to get equipment and vehicles inspected, which was related to when you could register them,” said Phillippe Falkner, Business Services Specialist at Ed Bell Construction Company. “We got to the point where we had a number of fleet pieces out in use and on the road that were unregistered or uninspected in a timely fashion. The old way of keeping track of inspections and licenses didn’t work for us anymore.”

Bringing the Data to You

To simplify the process and ensure that the licensing for each and every vehicle in its pool remains current, the staff who oversee this process searched for a proactive, automated online solution.

“We’ll do around $100 million a year in revenue but we’re a small team in which everyone wears multiple hats,” Falkner said. “So we wanted to find a renewal tracking system that was easy to use and maintain, and would let us know when an inspection or license was 60 days out. We liked RenewalTracker because it brought the data to us, rather than us having to go look for it. It was clear that this was the system we needed to ensure our fleet stays inspected and licensed, per state requirements.”

Previously, accounts payable administrator Jesinet Seay had to ask a colleague to go and check each vehicle and piece of equipment to see when the next inspection and license renewal was due. This was a very time-consuming process that involved a lot of back and forth with foremen, superintendents, and other staff members and plenty of data entry. “There was not a lot of confidence that the fleet was registered and inspected,” Falkner said.

Simplifying Inspection and Registration

Then there were the new state requirements to reckon with, which completely altered how Ed Bell Construction Company inspects and registers the equipment in its fleet.

“Now you have to have the inspection done prior to your registration, which make the timing even more critical,” said Julio Medrano, shop foreman at Ed Bell Construction Company. “We couldn’t trust our spreadsheets to keep everything on track.”

It’s a very different story with RenewalTracker. Now, the inspection and registration stages are managed in an intuitive cloud-based system that alerts Jesinet, Julio, and any other relevant team members 60 days before a vehicle or piece of equipment is due for re-inspection or registration. This way, they can get ahead of the situation.

“With RenewalTracker, we're doing the same task more efficiently with better results in about a quarter of the time it took before,”

Falkner said.

Improving Fleet Management

In addition to RenewalTracker meeting all of Ed Bell Construction Company’s licensing and inspection needs, the system also proved to offer an unexpected but welcome benefit.

“RenewalTracker allows us to see exactly what pieces of equipment we have, and match with our current and future needs,” Falkner said.

“It's an additional set of eyes on the age of the fleet, which pieces are getting utilized, and which are not. This is a big win for managing fleet turnover.”

One of the reasons that Ed Bell Construction Company’s vehicle/equipment licensing now runs more smoothly is the strong relationship team members have with RenewalTracker’s staff.

When talking about why he would recommend RenewalTracker to others in the construction industry, Falkner said: “RenewalTracker provides the advantage of making sure our fleet is legal and that we don’t have equipment on site or on the road that’s lacking the proper inspection or registration. This helps us avoid fines and other issues.”