Superior Steel Connectors is a Denver-based steel construction company that performs commercial steel services to general contractors and fabricators in Colorado. It works on a variety of construction projects — military, retail, office, medical, education — expanding to employ up to 35 during busy months. Like many companies working in the construction sector Superior Steel faces the reality of losses from theft of equipment, vehicles, and other valuable assets that it needs to operate effectively on a jobsite.

Over a six-month period in 2009, seven of Superior’s valuable welding machines were stolen from job sites. At $6,000 per machine, the replacements were costly; Superior’s insurance company was threatening to change coverage terms.

CEO Mary Gunn believed that it might be an “inside job,” so she set out to adopt an asset-tracking system that would provide continuous location information and send an alert if the equipment was moved from a building site. Superior Steel Connectors already had asset-tracking devices on its vehicle fleet, but these were activated by the ignition system for the engine, making them unsuitable for welding machine protection.

After researching mobile resource management options, the contractor selected the Kuva Asset Tracking device in September 2009. “We looked at five or six different companies, but Kuva met our asset-management requirements best,” Gunn explains. “As it turns out, they also gave us an immediate return on investment.”

The Kuva Asset Tracking solution lets users pinpoint the precise location of heavy equipment and valuable assets by using GPS to acquire location, time/date, and motion data points. Then, this data is transmitted to remote servers via the GSM/GPRS wireless network, where it is processed, converted into the street address and posted to a web or PC-based application with GIS mapping and satellite imagery for pinpoint accuracy.

Because the Kuva units are being used covertly, the compact size, similar to a small hard drive (6X3X1.5 in.) is an important factor. Even more important is the customizable reporting feature allowing users to determine frequency of location updates, which manages data transmission costs.

“The Kuva system provides us with multiple location reports while our machines are on the move, so that we know where they are at any given point in time,” Gunn explains. “And, because of the extended battery life, we don’t have to worry about removing them to be recharged while they are on-site, or linking them into an ignition like other devices.”

Within just a month of attaching Kuva devices to 12 of its welding machines, Superior Steel found the system was put to the test. “On the morning of October 18, 2009, one of our employees called in to report that a welding machine was missing from the construction site,” Gunn says.

“Immediately, we logged onto the Kuva internet tracking site, which showed us that the machine had been removed from the site the previous evening, as well as the location of the yard where it was hidden at that exact moment.”

Quickly, the company contacted the Denver Police Department, who used the Kuva tracking system’s GPS information to pinpoint the machine’s exact location and obtain a search warrant.

Upon searching the premises, police recovered the welding machine, along with other stolen equipment and the flat-bed tow truck that was used by the thieves to remove the machine from the construction site.

“The police were thrilled,” says Gunn. “Without the tracking information they would never have been able to search the yard.”

Using an asset-tracking device like Kuva significantly increases the likelihood that high value assets, equipment and even vehicles can be tracked and returned.