Martin Courtney

When I was young, the funniest closing time prank we could think of was to steal a piece of construction equipment and place it somewhere conspicuous, like on top of the Prince Albert statue in the town square, for everyone to have a good laugh at in the morning.

Admittedly, nobody I knew ever quite managed to “borrow” a JCB – not a whole one anyway – and there seems even less chance of that happening in the future if BT’s Constructnet tracking solution wins any business.

Constructnet, launched last week by BT Auto-ID Services, is the first iteration of a system that uses radio frequency identification (RFID) chips and bar codes embedded in both site equipment and materials, ostensibly to improve asset tracking and supply chain management.

Eventually, by using normal cellular networks and global positioning system (GPS) technology, the system could also provide real-time location tracking and alerts if some light-fingered local decides to take a piece of kit on an unscheduled journey.

Constructnet conducted a two-month long trial on a major London construction site earlier this year. An RFID reader, alongside GSM and GPS communications chips, was used to scan RFID information embedded in site machinery. This data was then sent wirelessly to BT’s servers via the mobile network, and accessed remotely using a browser.

BT Auto-ID Services prefers to emphasise aspects of the system other than its potential for covert asset surveillance. For example, it will enable workers to quickly find items or materials stored on large sites, while automatic creation of picking notes, dispatch notes and proof of collection and delivery notes should help to resolve payment disputes between building firms and their suppliers.

Constructnet could also help reduce the number of machine-related accidents and deaths that occur on construction sites by alerting managers when equipment needs maintenance work or when an employee attempting to operate it does not have the necessary training, authorisation or safety equipment.

This latter scenario suggests the employee must also have an RFID chip, though hopefully attached to their clothing rather than embedded.

And as the cost of RFID chips plummets, it could also become cost-effective to embed them into a much wider range of lower value equipment. Whether they’ll ever be found in those flashing yellow lights that students love is another question; but campuses across the country should perhaps be prepared for police raids that aren’t drugs related.

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