ABOVE: A screenshot from Martin County’s new PreCise Fleet Management software which tracks the county’s plows.

FAIRMONT– Martin County has new advanced technology to aid the highway department when its crews are plowing county roads. PreCise Fleet Management Software offers the ability to track the county’s 17 units when they’re on the roads.

County Engineer Kevin Peyman said the county did a demo of the program in the summer of 2023 and that the Martin County Board of Commissioners approved the purchase of the software in the late spring of 2024.

“We haven’t had it for a whole winter yet,” said Peyman.

The new tracking software is in the 12 tandem trucks and five motor graders. The one-time installation cost was $3,275 and then it will cost about $4,320 annually.

Peyman said he heard about the software through a company that sells the county some equipment.

He described the software as having multiple benefits.

“You can see where the trucks are in real time. It also allows us to respond to questions or concerns that we could not before,” Peyman said

He said if someone calls and says a truck went by their house going 70 miles per hour, they can look it up and see what speed any truck was going on a route at any given time.

Likewise, Peyman said if someone calls and says they haven’t seen a motor grader go by, he can look it up and see what day and time a truck went by and at what speed.

“It helps us give better information when people have those concerns or complaints,” he explained.

Peyman stressed that the purpose of the software is not to police staff, but that it could protect them in some cases, too.

“It is a benefit if there’s ever a concern that someone is abusing time,” he said. “But it’s to protect them as much as anything because if there’s a complaint that they’re speeding or haven’t gone by, we can look that up.”

The software stores for about a year so Peyman has the ability to go back and replay the route of any of the 17 trucks on any day at any time.

He does not spend much time just sitting and watching the software track the fleet, but said it will be a good resource to look at when it’s needed.

Since this is the first season the software has been used, Peyman said there’s still a learning curve to understanding all of its potential.

“If someone says, ‘I met one of your trucks on a road and it threw a rock at my car and we’d like to turn it into insurance,’ we can pull it up and say, ‘sorry we didn’t have a truck on the road at that time.’ It’s just useful information,” Peyman said.

While not being utilized quite yet, Peyman said the software also has the ability to track how much salt and sand is being put down on the roads.

“If we get to that point, we can see how much material is being put down. The time could come that we have to track how much is being put down. I think our goal is to eventually do that,” Peyman said.