Keeping Kistner Concrete On The Road

Kistner Concrete Products has been providing Western New York with precast concrete products for over 70 years. Their expertise in producing everything from retaining walls and sanitary structures to products for bridges and highways is unquestionable. Their expertise in locating and servicing vehicles and equipment, however, needed a little help.

When parts manager Ryan McClurg rejoined the company in November 2020 after a long stint as a Harley Davidson mechanic, Kistner was testing out two solar asset trackers from Linxup. With over 20 trailers, dozens of semis and passenger vehicles, and equipment ranging from enormous Taylor Clark forklifts and Volvo front loaders to leave-behinds like portable compressors, the company’s owners were struggling to keep track of their maintenance needs and, sometimes, to even find everything.

After finding Linxup, they tried out two solar units and quickly realized they weren’t getting the mileage information they needed. Their Linxup team guided them to AT3 wired asset trackers, which not only provided helpful location information, but also tracked mileage and triggered the alerts they needed to keep their fleet well serviced. According to Ryan, they soon realized that Linxup was providing much more than an easier way to keep up with preventative maintenance. He related a common occurrence for the management team:

“You’d call and say, ‘Hey Joe do you know where truck 33 is? Who was the last guy to drive it?’ And the answer is ‘I’m not sure.’ And then you have to call all the locations to see if anyone has seen it.”

Through chuckles, Ryan commented that it’s not that the company was disorganized, but with so many vehicles, pieces of equipment, and locations, it can get complicated to keep tabs on everything.

And simplifying the complicated is what Linxup does best. “Now with Linxup, it does all of that for us. And we can look at every single thing whenever we want. Alerts come to our phones,” said Ryan.

They were even able to spot the random times when drivers were speeding or late for jobs. “We can tell when someone is going 87 miles per hour in a 65. We can see that a truck hasn’t moved. ‘Hey Donny why are you still mid-route and haven’t made it?’ And he says there’s an accident—but we know he’s running late before he even lets us know what’s going on.”

That test with a handful of AT3s was so successful, Ryan’s boss said, “Perfect. We’re gonna put these in everything we have.” They even retained the original solar devices for trailers and compressors that don’t require mileage data.

Ryan explained, “There’s a lot of equipment that comes through here. Keeping track of them at all the different plants can be somewhat of a challenge if we don’t have a way to track them. So Linxup has been perfect for that.”

Despite all of the benefits they’ve discovered, maintenance tracking remains the most important function for Ryan. He keeps Linxup open in a browser tab throughout the day and sets up alerts to go directly to the maintenance team to schedule service. As a mechanic himself, he’s pleased with the quality of the trackers. “The actual units are well made and easy to install. The wiring harnesses are good quality.”

And he’s been especially pleased with his Linxup team. Citing other vendors who often take days to return his calls, he’s thrilled to have dedicated support when he has questions, needs to place new orders, or runs into issues. “Nate is great. Shir is great. They both get back to me right away when I need to figure something out.” He even praised the speed of shipping.

As Kistner Concrete continues to grow in Western New York, Linxup will continue to partner with them to keep their vehicles and equipment where they need them and in good condition.