Proprietary Site Networks: Harnessing the Power of Bluetooth Mesh

As the industry’s first two-way fleet management and communications platform, ClearSky Smart Fleet™ is designed to improve productivity, uptime and profitability. As this ground-breaking IoT solution continues to evolve, we’ve been able to deliver on everything we promised it would be able to do. And we’re not done yet. Our team here at JLG is still finding ways to add even more value to what ClearSky Smart Fleet has to offer.

One way we’re doing that is by continuously adding new features. The latest one is called “Automated Site Networks,” and it uses a proprietary Bluetooth® mesh network to simplify the concept of geofencing, removing human error and returning efficiency.

To explain how Site Networks achieves all that, we need to first revisit traditional geofencing. Equipment owners love the idea of geofencing. They tell us, “I have a branch location, and I want to know if a machine leaves that branch.” That makes sense, right? No one wants their equipment stolen; they want to protect their investments. That’s geofencing’s original value proposition, and it also helps owners understand how their machines are being used.

Unfortunately, traditional geofencing can be really complicated . Setting up separate geofences around, for example, 20 machines, requires a lot of tedious clicking around to establish their perimeters. Or you could choose to set up a 10-mile radius around your location as a geofence. While that method may be fast and easy, it’s not very precise and may create a whole new set of issues. Furthermore, if you assign your machine assets to a geofence, and one of those machines leaves that geofence, you must manually assign it to another one to keep track of it. Not simple. Not intuitive. Not practical.

JLG wanted to take the original principle of geofencing and create a system that would trigger its own events and actions based on machine movement. In other words, we wanted to automate processes that previously required manual effort. We realized we could take advantage of our solution’s existing Bluetooth technology and use it in a way that made sense for our customers. By doing that, ClearSky Smart Fleet could offer all the benefits of geofencing — and then some — without the frustration.

Here's an example of how Site Networks delivers on that promise. As a JLG rental dealer, you rent out equipment from your branch locations, but you also have machines in use at physical job sites. Now, you can filter all machines by a Site Network, assigning them to a job site location or a branch location. When a machine leaves a Site Network, thanks to Bluetooth technology, it automatically creates or joins a new Site Network. Geofence borders change constantly as the machine moves around a branch location or job site, automating the geofencing process.

You can also filter your Site Networks by job site, branch-level interactions and more. Let’s say you send a service technician out to a site with multiple machines. Which assets should the tech fix? Why do they need repairs? What’s happening at that job site? Or maybe the tech went out to work on a single machine, but now there are some lower-level diagnostic trouble codes or faults on other units that should also be addressed. If that tech is already there, wouldn’t it be great to filter all your machines by site and say, “These are the 10 machines at this particular site that need your attention”? And then, because ClearSky Smart Fleet connects to JLG’s Online Express e-commerce site, the tech can order any necessary parts quickly and easily. That’s the kind of real-world functionality that saves time, money and frustration.

Another benefit of Site Networks becomes evident when you are shipping machines from place to place. We know that shipping logistics can often be a real challenge.  Site Networks simplifies the process because you can receive information about where an asset is right now and when it will arrive at its destination. There’s no worry or guesswork about shipping a machine to the wrong location or losing track of it somewhere along the way.

Site Networks will be available soon, so we want to show you the benefits now of JLG’s “agile development.” We currently have an installed base of more than 55,000 JLG units with ClearSky Smart Fleet, and when we “turn on” the Site Networks feature, all those units will be able to access it automatically, as will all new ClearSky Smart Fleet-equipped machines. In other words, we can continue improving and expanding the ClearSky Smart Fleet platform over time and add more value without disruption.

JLG has improved the concept of geofencing, making it so intuitive to use that you can open the ClearSky Smart Fleet app and get started right away.