Custom plant scheduling app for earthmoving
Appfront builds planning apps for earthmoving and plant hire companies: every crane, shovel and dumper on a planning board with its operator, transport with the low-loader from job to job, inspections that block deployment when they expire, and operating hours that the operator reports on the phone and that land straight on the job. So the planner doesn't have to ring every evening to find out where the crawler crane will be tomorrow.
What is a plant planning app for earthmoving?
Equipment planning in earthworks means assigning machines, operators and transport to projects each day, with everything that could stop that deployment: an inspection about to expire, maintenance that is scheduled, an operator without the right certificate, or a low-loader that is already booked. An app puts this on a single planning board, lets operators see and report their schedule and machine hours on their phone, and links the hours and fuel to the job they belong to.
Without such an app, the planning board hangs in the canteen, the hire of the mobile crane sits in the owner's diary and the inspection date is in a folder. The operator hears in the evening where he needs to be tomorrow, the low-loader drives twice because the shovel turned out to be needed elsewhere, and the operating hours arrive on a scrap of paper at the end of the week, after which the administration attaches them to the wrong job.
We build bespoke because the planning has to match your fleet and your work: which machines you have, which certificates your operators need, whether you do transport yourself or hire it in, and which package you use for administration. A generic planning tool knows nothing about inspections, low-loaders or operating hours.
Planning board
Machines, operators and transport per job and per day, with drag-and-drop scheduling, and an alert when a machine is double-booked or an operator lacks the required certificate.
Inspections and maintenance
Per machine, the inspections, service intervals and hour-meter readings, with a block on assignment when an inspection has lapsed and a reminder as a service falls due.
Hours and fuel
Operators log engine hours, fuel and notes on their phone, per job, and the data flows straight into the job sheet and the post-job costing.
How we build your app for equipment planning in earthworks
We start with the planning of the past few weeks: which machines stood idle, which transports were duplicated, and which inspection was nearly missed. The app is built from there.
Which machines, which operators with which certificates, how transport currently works, how hours are reported and who you invoice. We look at the downtime of the past few months.
Per machine the details, inspections and maintenance; per operator the certificates and availability. The foundation beneath the planning board.
The planning board for the planner, the schedule and hours logging on the operator's phone, and transport by low-loader in between.
Hours through to the work order and invoicing, subcontractor hire, integration with your accounts, and then ongoing management and expansion with GPS data from the machines.
What an app for equipment planning in earthworks actually does
The components below recur in almost every earthworks company. Which ones you need depends on the size of your fleet and on how you arrange transport.
Planning board
Per day and per job, the machines, operators and transports, with drag-and-drop, conflicts shown clearly and planning several weeks ahead.
Machine fleet
Per machine the type, inspections, maintenance, hour-meter reading and documents, with a block on assignment when an inspection has lapsed.
Operators and certificates
Per operator the certificates and expiry dates, availability and the machines they are permitted to operate.
Transport planning
The low-loader or subcontracted transport per move, linked to the machine and the job, with the journey in the driver's schedule.
Hours logging
Engine hours, fuel and notes per job from the phone, with a photo of the hour meter, straight onto the job sheet.
Reporting
Utilisation per machine, downtime, costs per job from hours and fuel, and the machines hired in most often because your own are not free.
Who we build an app for equipment planning in earthworks for
The app is intended for businesses where machines run on several sites at once and where downtime and duplicated transport are currently eating into margin.
Earthworks contractors
Your own cranes and excavators with operators on contractors' sites. The planning board with transport and hours logging are the core.
Plant contractors with earthworks
Agricultural and groundwork combined, with seasonal peaks. Planning by season and the deployment of the same operator across different machines matter most.
Civil contractors with their own plant
Plant as part of your own projects, with the project manager requesting allocation. Requesting plant per project and costs per job are what is needed.
Machine hire firms with operators
Machines hired out by the day or week, with the operator included. Availability, inspections and invoicing per hire are the core.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
This page is about planning machines and people. For measuring the quantities they move, see our page on an app for earthworks quantity calculation. For maintenance in your own workshop, see our page on workshop software for heavy plant, and for the wider civil contractor, see our page on civil engineering and infrastructure software. You can read about how we work at software development.
If you never want to dig without a valid KLIC notification, take a look at our KLIC notification integration.
Why choose Appfront for your earthmoving equipment planning app?
Equipment planning is about where a machine will be tomorrow and whether it is allowed to run. That is what we build on: one planning board, one record of hours, and one warning before an inspection expires.
The plan is the same for everyone
Planner, operator and driver all look at the same board. A change takes one action and everyone sees it, rather than a round of phone calls.
An expired inspection cannot be scheduled
The app blocks deployment and warns you weeks in advance. The inspection gets scheduled, not missed.
Hours flow through to the job
The operator logs hours at the machine, on site, on the day itself. The final costing is accurate without paper slips.
Security and privacy for an earthmoving equipment planning app
The app holds data on operators, jobs and clients, and on machine positions if you use GPS. Access is set by role: the operator sees their own schedule and logs their own hours, the planner sees everything, and accounts see the hours and costs. Positions are used to locate equipment and plan transport, not to track people.
The app runs in a European data centre, with encrypted storage and daily back-ups. Integrations with work orders, time registration, accounts and the machine manufacturer work with their own keys, which can be revoked per integration.
Frequently asked questions about an earthmoving equipment planning app
Questions earthmoving companies ask before they start with this.
It places machines, operators and transport by project and by day on a single planning board, monitors inspections and maintenance per machine with a block when an inspection has expired, lets operators see and report their schedule and machine hours on their phone, and links hours and fuel to the job for the work order and post-calculation.
Yes. Each day they see which job they are on, with which machine, the address, the contact person and any particulars, and they receive a notification if the schedule changes. At the end of the day they report operating hours, fuel and any breakdowns, with a photo of the hour meter.
For each machine, the inspections with their expiry dates and the maintenance intervals, based on operating hours or date, are recorded. The app warns in advance, adds the inspection as a task to the planning, and blocks deployment if an inspection has expired. You define which inspections apply to each machine.
Yes. A move from one job to another becomes a transport with the low-loader or a subcontracted haulier, linked to the machine, with the journey in the driver's schedule. The planner can see immediately whether a move is feasible on the day the machine needs to be on the next job.
Yes. Hired equipment and third-party operators sit on the same board, with the hire company and hire rate, so the costs per job include the hire. This shows you which machines you keep hiring because your own are not free.
Yes. Hours and fuel go to the work order and time registration, and costs per job go to the final costing and invoicing in your accounts package. We connect to what you already use; the app does not become a second timekeeping system.
Ask that first. Some packages include a planning board, and for a small fleet that may be enough. Custom development makes sense when inspections and certificates must drive deployment, when transport with the low-loader has to be scheduled, when machine operators need to log their hours from their phones, or when planning currently runs across three systems and a group chat.
Every machine on the right job tomorrow, inspected and with the operator in place?
Tell us how many machines you have, how you arrange transport, and how often a machine stood idle last month because of planning. We'll show you what the planning board and hours logging look like.