Building roads in Iceland with contractor ISTAK using MachineMax connected equipment

A six-hour drive from Reykjavik is a major new 19-km road project that will cut 11km off the journey users take on the main route around the island.

With over 18,000 truckloads needed to move more than 500,000 cubic metres of material to complete its construction, every drop of fuel saved will make a big difference.

On the site Peter visited, the ISTAK team was busy putting its Caterpillar fleet supplied by dealer Klettur to work, which now handles up to 18 loads a day, up from 15 loads, thanks to the data it uses from its MachineMax dashboards.

Fleet Manager Hjálmar Örn Arnarson explained how it has made these significant improvements: “With every machine connected, we can see exactly what is going on onsite and where we have hotspots impacting productivity.

“By analysing this information, we identified both machine idling and high fuel usage, leading to us making changes like widening haul roads and reducing the overall fleet truck speeds.”

Peter commented: “Looking at the data on the MachineMax dashboard with Hjálmar was eye opening as the business has increased machine utilisation by 5% whilst similarly reducing idling activity by around 5%.

“And this has been achieved in just two months leading to a dramatic increase in productivity with fewer emissions per tonne of material moved.

“To enhance the level of information gathered onsite, the trucks have also been fitted with tipping sensors, which show exactly where the material has been placed.”

Hjálmar: “Due to the way in which we make the road, we have to understand the amount of material needed as the ground conditions below vary dramatically.

“With this information, we can also plan how many trucks we need onsite throughout the project as it moves forward.”

Peter added: “Having been interrupted by an additional overnight stay due to a storm closing the road, I can also see the benefit of being able to access ‘data on the move’ for Hjálmar and his team.

He was able to pull up information on his phone and relay actions that needed to be taken on site directly to the team, which shows how powerful real-time information can be.”