Short answer: now.

There is no doubt that complete machine autonomy is coming, we just don’t know when yet. It’s important not to dismiss this. “If your competitors are early adopters, then you’ll be at a huge disadvantage if you don’t start planning now,” says Andy.

Remote technology needs to be considered within your infrastructure plans. If you are working on planning new sites today that will be permanent sites, plan them with controlled areas for remote and autonomous operation and plan to have infrastructure in place to charge electric machines and/or trucks. Andy says, “You’re not going to build a batch plant for just 5 years of operation, so be sure to build it with the infrastructure in place now so that you’re ahead of the game when all the technology fully rolls out.”

Do we have you convinced yet? Hopefully the answer is yes, and if it is, here are some questions to ask yourself to help determine if your fleet is ready to start incorporating remote technologies now:

• Is your work environment harsh or dangerous?
  The ability to remove operators from potential harm is a huge benefit to remote technologies. Cat Command solutions also reduce fatigue, which means your operators’ health and wellness will also benefit.
• What does your machine utilization look like?
  If you have a machine idle time of 40% or more, you should consider remote technologies. You can increase utilization of highly skilled operators and bring idle time down to as low as 5% using Cat Command.
• Do you struggle to attract operators?
  Technology is a key component to attracting new generations of workers. Cat Command is also important in our ability as an industry to hire and promote disabled operators within the skilled trades.
• Do you operate in remote, hard to reach locations?
  Maybe you struggle to find operators who would relocate for specific job sites, or you work in commodities where you don’t need to run equipment continuously throughout the day. “Cat Command gives you the ability to hire operators on demand,” explains Andy, “so you can have an operator connect into a machine at a specific location and run that machine only for the times needed, from an office anywhere in the world.”
• Do you currently have a safe, controlled area on site to operate remote technologies?
  If you have the space for it already, what are you waiting for?

Bottom line – remote technology is no gimmick, it’s here to stay. Technologies like Cat Command are going to make huge differences in the industry, both from a safety perspective and from a cost and productivity perspective. Keeping on top of the latest research and studies enables you to see how you can implement new technologies into your business and continue to grow as a result.

Contact your local Cat dealer for a consult on integrating Cat Command into your fleet.