The following articles will show you how to utilize the DualID Access Control-system to better manage your rental machines or your owned equipment.

Use the navigation on the right side of this article to jump to the sections that are relevant for you.

If you want to use Access Control, you need to have the right hardware installed. Here’s an overview of the basic hardware to consider:

See how to enable Access Control and add, edit, or delete keys
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You can control how long a machine remains open after the ignition has been turned off. This time frame should not be too short, as the operator might turn off the machine for a few minutes during normal operation. It should also not be too long as untrained operators might use the machine if the machine access key is left open.
Ideally, you should put the setting somewhere between 1 and 10 minutes.

You can manage your access keys through an ERP-System via an API-connection. For more information, see the section on API at the end of this article
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Operating machinery of any kind can be dangerous. Many machines require operators with professional training and a license to use certain types of machinery, be it a 9-ton excavator or a 30 m boom lift. However, on a big job site, sometimes untrained personnel get access to a machine, they are not trained to use. Often “just to move it” or because resources are scarce. But job site safety does not allow for compromises or cutting corners.
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With Access Control you can avoid any unauthorized use of your machinery, while at the same time increasing safety.

With these 4 steps you have all the necessary requirements in place to avoid any unauthorized use of your machines. Make sure that your staff is properly trained on how to use the system and to establish a clear process, where every operator always carries their access key with them and, most importantly, never lend out their access keys to untrained operators.
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In the Operations Report you can see, which access key was active on which machine during a certain period of time. See how to generate an Operations Report here
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You can search by machines, clients, groups, operators (key), operator's company, or zones. The report will show you machine activity paired with operator information.
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Below you find an example report, with explanations to the data points.

If you want to analyse the machine usage during a specific time period, e.g. while a certain operator was using the machine, you can dig into Machine Insights found under Asset Home (for Insight customers only) or track the machine’s movement in the Movement Tab
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Maybe you are a contractor, who has rented 20 machines from a rental company for a certain project. On the job site, you have hired three sub-contractors to take care of the electrical work, ground works, and plumbing respectively. All three sub-contractors have access to the pool of 20 machines. However, you want to keep an overview of how many hours each sub-contractor uses of the machine pool, and bill them accordingly.
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With the basics in place, you can start to reap the benefits of machine pool based billing.

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Generate an Operations Report under the Report Tab. Choose which machines, clients, groups, operator's company, operators, or zones you want to base your report on.
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Below you can see an example of an Operations Report based from the month of December that shows two companies where operators had access to our machine pool.
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On page 1 of the report you find a total overview of the operating hours split between the companies, i.e. sub-contractors.
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On the following pages you will find details on each single machine and the operating time split between the operators.

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For increased flexibility and more sorting options, you can export the report to Excel.
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​Now you're ready to start billing

You can now use this information to calculate the correct number of hours each contractor has used the machines in your machine pool. The reports or excel sheets can, if needed, be attached to your invoices.
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You can use Access Control to remotely inhibit machines from starting. You do that by locking the installed relay in an open position, and thus preventing the ignition from starting the engine.
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You can do this when:

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Either way, the machine will not start now, even if the operator presents a valid key.
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It is important to note that you cannot stop a machine that is currently operating. You can only prevent a machine from starting again, after the ignition has been switched off. This is by intention, as stopping a machine during operation might be dangerous.
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Also, we advise you to warn the customer or operator of the machine before you lock it remotely.
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Trackunit offers powerful and easy-to-use APIs, which allow you to export data to external ERP-systems as well as control settings in Trackunit Manager remotely. You can find detailed descriptions and documentation on our APIs on https://dev.trackunit.com/ (available in English only).
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​CreateKey: https://dev.trackunit.com/docs/key
Use this post-request to create keys
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​CreateGroup: https://dev.trackunit.com/docs/group
Use this post-request to create groups
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To create a machine pool as described above, you can easily create a group for the machines in question and then create keys valid only for this group.
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​GetKeyHistory: https://dev.trackunit.com/docs/keyhistory
Get information on the activation history of any given key.
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​GetReportTrip: https://dev.trackunit.com/docs/trip
Get information on how long a key was active on a certain machine.
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The above two requests can be used to create a report over the activation history and overall usage of any given key, for example, if you want to create a usage overview of any given key after a machine has been rented.
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You can do the same from the machine perspective, by using the following request:
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​GetUnitHistory: https://dev.trackunit.com/docs/unit-history

💡 Tip: