United Civil Construction Ltd (United Civil) was established over 40 years ago in New Zealand with the forming of United Carriers Group. When the group separated its construction operation in mid-2006, United Civil was formed. The civil construction company has over 120 trained and experienced staff who deliver outstanding work on projects from Auckland up to Cape Reinga. With a focus on benefiting its people and the communities in which it serves, United Civil puts health and safety at the core of its operations. It is also committed to building all of its projects in a sustainable manner that does not harm the environment.

Enhancing the Business Through Technology

With their surveying technology not delivering desired effect, United Civil sought change. The management team knew that technology plays a key role in expansion and that as a high growth company, data is an under-used resource in the construction industry. As such, the team began searching for a technology partner that would provide robust, highly useable machines as well as high quality data that could be used throughout its projects.

After a competitive evaluation process with three leading brands, Mark Daglish, Survey Manager at United Civil, said: “We selected Trimble as our technology partner due to its ease of use and the overall quality of the product suite. Trimble also stands out for its commitment to innovation and safety which aligns our two organizations.”

The Move to Trimble

United Civil has deployed the Trimble® Earthworks Grade Control Platform on one of its Hitachi excavators, alongside the Trimble Business Center office software.

• Trimble Earthworks is the industry’s first integrated 3D aftermarket grade control system with excavator automatics capabilities. The platform includes intuitive, easy-to-learn software that is extremely customizable and allows each operator to personalize the interface to maximize productivity.
• Trimble Business Center is a powerful office software tool that quickly and easily creates accurate, integrated 3D constructible models for survey, construction and marine applications.

Together, these solutions allow United Civil to optimize decision making and efficiency in the office and on the job site.

Implementation was simple, with little training needed thanks to the familiar interface present across Trimble’s solutions. Daglish notes: “The excavator component was easy to get started – it was up and running immediately that day. SITECH NZ was a phenomenal partner too, supplying the team with guidance on the machines and educating them on how technology will truly make a difference to their work-day.”

Benefits

United Civil is already experiencing several benefits from its deployment of Trimble, this includes:

Improved health and safety

• With a 3D view of the project and grade progress inside the cab, the operator doesn’t have to rely on stakes or grade checker to dig to correct depths. Daglish said: ‘It’s going to save survey time and increase the safety of the team working on the site, particularly in the trenches.”

Better data sharing

• Trimble allows users to remotely send and share data across machines. Daglish noted, “Trimble is automatically recording data and feeding it back to the site team. In addition, it’s able to connect and download updated designs from management which saves us a huge amount of time and reduces human error.”

Faster and more efficient

• With all the data in front of us on the machines we’re working with, tasks are being completed in record time. “We’ve doubled productivity thanks to Trimble. We have total confidence with the client that the job will be done to the design, with fewer errors than ever before,” said Daglish.

Better equipment utilization

• United Civil has been impressed at the high levels of technology uptake by the team. Daglish comments, “The operators have been very impressed with how user-friendly Trimble’s technology is. We have a diverse team. Trimble is easy to use, and the benefits of the technology are clear, meaning that driving uptake internally is easy. This is good news for everyone.”

What’s next?

Daglish concluded: “Our goal is to have a continual investment in the technology that will help us stay ahead of the competition in both price and performance. We are currently planning for additional installations on a grader and excavator along with multiple field GPS units for site engineers. With Trimble this allows us to hit the ground running, making it easy for our staff to adapt and see results.”