Time is money, so even the smallest delay on a construction project can be costly. How, then, do you keep critical heavy equipment from going down and causing delays? How do you keep crews productive and safe? Increasingly, the answer to these questions lies in sensors that monitor temperature spikes, excessive vibrations, heart rates and more.
Once these sensors detect something out of the ordinary, they transmit an alert so that maintenance workers and monitors can intervene early, before an equipment failure occurs or before fatigue overtakes a worker.
It’s all part of the Internet of Things, or IoT, you keep hearing about.
IoT technology is helping contractors minimize equipment-related delays, and improving safety while boosting employee productivity.
To a still small yet growing number of construction company owners, none of this is exactly news.
According to a recently released Dodge Data & Analytics survey, nearly three-quarters of those using IoT technology attest that it’s helping them with myriad occupational risks.
Moreover, around half of those surveyed believe IoT technology will ultimately help address property damage, construction defects, general liability and financial risks.
Asked for their No. 1 reason for adopting IoT technology, 67% of the respondents cited the possibility of lowering insurance premiums.
An even greater share of the respondents, 77%, reported they act upon key safety and risk insights gleaned from the IoT technologies they’re now using.
Encouraging, right, especially when statistics show that one in five worker deaths a year is in construction?
On the other hand, what’s less encouraging is that only 10% of contractors reported having a dedicated innovation budget.
Money, of course, is always an issue and no one wants to make the wrong investment.
Among the risk management uses for IoT technology, we’re fans of the following:
Will carriers suddenly offer reduced rates to companies that adopt this technology? There’s too little data for us to know just yet, largely because this area is still so new to many. But there’s no doubt a safer workplace tends to see fewer injuries and that fewer claims help keep premiums in check.
If any of the above sounds interesting to you, reach out to us with your questions. We have a team of risk management and construction experts who can help you decide which of these tech innovations might be right for you.
Javier Rivera is CCIG’s Director of Risk Control. Reach him at 720-330-7941 or Javier.Rivera@thinkccig.com.
CCIG is a Denver-area insurance brokerage with personal and business insurance clients nationwide. We do more than make sure you have the right policy. We also help you lower your long-term cost of insurance with our risk and claims management expertise and a commitment to service excellence.
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