• The Downtime Index’ recent consecutive weeks positive 24% increase in machine activity is reversed in week 17, with a 7% drop in machine use.
• Fed by fully anonymised data from 150,000 off-highway construction vehicles in Europe and USA (22 countries)
• Downtime Index turns telematic data into construction insights to aid project planning and industry reboot

Using telematics, the data is gathered from OHV (off-highway vehicles) machines during use and analyzed data generates the context and specific tips for senior executives to help blunt the current impact of the crisis. The site allows users to drill into the machine activity metric for each week to see how many machines have been working since the beginning of this year compared to last year.

In addition, a chart compares regional performance over time, setting current performance against anticipated utilization of construction machines (Index=100). The higher the index number, the better the country is doing in terms of its construction activity. Major economies including the USA, Germany, France and UK are amongst the 22 countries currently tracked.

The site uses simple metrics to provide a non-technical user-friendly interface, offering broad industry trends. The insights available decode the industry’s current situation providing actionable intelligence for organisations across the construction value chain, from OEMs, logistics, and rental companies to contractors, trade bodies and government departments.The Downtime Index provides the following Downtime Metrics:

• Utilization Against Benchmark
• Utilization Against Previous Year
• Machine Activity
• Downtime by Country
• Tip of the Week and links to a catalogue of hints and tips
• Downtime by Week
• Machine Activity by Week
• Downtime by Region

Mathias Frost, Director of Software Products at Trackunit, commented on the launch of Downtime Index, “Since we are not in a position to manufacture PPE or ventilators to assist the fight against Covid-19, at Trackunit we are determined to do what we can – donate our data and analytics expertise. The Downtime Index offers near real-time insights for the construction industry at a time when situations are evolving rapidly and differently from nation to nation. We are currently calling for more partners to submit data and contribute to the Index.”

Commencing on January 19th, 2020 (the base week), the Index uses a rolling 7-day window and assigns the data into record segments. Illustrating how quickly data can transform into useful information, the Downtime Index weekly data, for week 17, indicates a drop of 7% from 83 to 77. This means that machines are 13% less utilised than expected, which is unexpected after consecutive weeks of positive growth. Compared to 2019, week 18 this year is 11 points lower, which is slightly less than expectations.

The Downtime Index is the first publicly available resource providing this level of data and weekly analysis. It demonstrates how the construction industry can leverage data generated every day by OHV and other digitally connected equipment. Collaborative data collection and analysis provides the platform to help the industry become more customer-focused, whilst reducing downtime and increasing productivity and efficiency.

For more details, please visit the Downtime Index at https://www.downtimeindex.com/