GPS Tracking for Construction: Types, Tips, and Tools

Construction companies use GPS technology to track their employees, company vehicles, heavy equipment, and tools. Each of these types of tracking has different benefits that help you reduce insurance and labor costs and prevent theft of time and property.

Let’s take a look at the different types of GPS tracking that construction companies use, the benefits of GPS tracking for construction, and the 10 best GPS trackers for construction equipment and workers.

How is GPS used in the construction industry?

Construction companies generally use GPS to track the locations of employees, company vehicles, heavy equipment, and tools.

1. Employee GPS tracking

Using construction time-tracking software, business owners and office admins can ensure that all construction workers are at the correct job sites when they’re getting paid to work.

Employees clock in and out using their mobile phones, and the time-tracking uses the phone’s built-in GPS technology to determine where employees are located at different times during the workday, depending on which of three GPS features you enable:

• GPS on punch: When an employee clocks in or out using the app, the time-tracking app logs their location on their timesheet. Admins can review the location data to make sure employees were at the correct job site when they clocked in or out of work.
• Real-time GPS: With real-time GPS, you can see where all employees are located on a map at any given time, and you can access breadcrumbs of their movements across the workday.
• Geofencing: Geofences are digital borders you place around a job site. If an employee tries to clock in/out when they’re not within the geofence, the app blocks the action.

Employee GPS tracking helps you eliminate time theft by helping you prevent employees from clocking in/out from somewhere other than a job site. It can also help you make sure employees aren’t running non-work errands during the day when they’re being paid to work.

Company vehicle GPS tracking

Tracking your company vehicles with GPS requires a combination of hardware and software. 

First, you purchase GPS tracking devices to install on your vehicles. These devices may need to be hardwired into your vehicles or plugged into an OBD-II port (if your vehicles support it). After installation, you connect the devices to the software you’ll use to track them.

Vehicle GPS tracking services will then show you where your company vehicles are located at all times. Additionally, some offer reports to help you stay on top of vehicle maintenance or optimize routes.

Company vehicle GPS tracking can help you recover your vehicles in case of theft, and many auto insurers will provide a discount on your insurance for vehicles with GPS tracking installed.

Construction equipment GPS tracking

Tracking your heavy equipment works largely the same way as vehicle tracking: you install GPS tracking devices on your equipment and then connect those devices to the provider’s tracking software.

Like vehicle tracking, heavy equipment tracking can help you recover stolen equipment, reduce property insurance costs, and stay on top of equipment maintenance.

Construction tools GPS tracking

It’s easy to leave a job site without remembering to collect all of your tools, and having to repurchase even small tools over and over again can add up. With GPS tracking, you can see where all of your tools are located so you can recover them if they’re lost or stolen.

GPS tracking for tools is simple: just head down to the nearest hardware store and pick up a package of Bluetooth trackers. Then, attach those to your tools, download the smartphone app that tracks them, and you’ll be able to see where all of your tools are located at any time.

The benefits of GPS tracking for construction

Tracking your construction employees, equipment, vehicles, and tools via GPS delivers several benefits:

• Prevent time theft: Employee GPS tracking makes it easy to make sure you’re only paying for the time that employees spend on the job site.
• Prevent property theft: Geofencing can alert you if a vehicle or equipment is removed from its location when it shouldn’t have been.
• Recover lost or stolen property: GPS tracking can help you find vehicles, tools, and equipment that have been misplaced, left behind, or stolen.
• Discounted insurance premiums: Many auto and property insurance providers offer discounts on premiums for company property that has GPS tracking installed.
• Better maintenance scheduling: GPS tracking can monitor the usage of your vehicles and equipment and notify you when it’s time to perform scheduled maintenance on them.
• Safer vehicle operation: Knowing that company vehicles are tracked by GPS can encourage your employees to avoid speeding and other poor driving behaviors that can be identified by GPS.
• Minimize fuel costs: If your workers or foreman are traveling to different job sites over the course of the day, the route optimization capabilities of vehicle tracking software can help you plan faster, more streamlined routes.

The 10 best GPS trackers for construction equipment and workers

Below we’re going to outline the 10 GPS trackers for construction equipment and workers. This ranking is based on the usefulness of their features, how easy they are for managers and employees to start using, and customer reviews.

1. Buddy Punch

Kicking off the list we have Buddy Punch, which combines remote employee time tracking, simplified scheduling, and streamlined payroll features into a singular, all-in-one app. 

There are many features that Buddy Punch comes with that make it an asset for construction businesses.

Intuitive and easy-to-use interface

Buddy Punch functions on any device with an internet connection, meaning you can establish a clock-in kiosk on site or in a main office through a desktop or tablet. Alternatively, you can have remote workers clock in and out via their iOS or Android smartphones.

In either case, Buddy Punch streamlines the timekeeping process with a user-friendly interface and a focus on simplicity. Even your least tech-savvy workers will have no issue tracking time.

GPS on punch

Buddy Punch’s GPS on punch feature allows you to log the GPS coordinates of an employee at the exact moment they clock in or clock out. This information will be immediately available on employee time cards so you can verify the time, date, and location of their punches. You can also look at all employee punches on a map within a specific timeframe.

Real-time GPS tracking

Buddy Punch allows you to view real-time GPS data for your employees for the entire duration they’re on the clock. Track your workforce using an interactive map to ensure that everyone is where they’re meant to be, whether that’s in the office or working a remote job site. You can even track how much time was spent at different locations if a crew member is expected at multiple locations in a single day.

This feature is flexible and can be made required for everyone, can be made optional for everyone, or can be turned on only for specific employees. Additionally, once your employees clock out, Buddy Punch ceases all location tracking. 

All punches can be verified in the administrator dashboard, and data logs are kept in the event you need to keep employees accountable.

Geofencing

Buddy Punch’s geofencing feature allows you to create a customizable radius, known as a geofence, on an interactive map. You can place multiple geofences on the map, and each one can be set to a customizable radius of up to 5,000 feet. Whenever a worker attempts to punch in or out while outside of a geofence, they’ll be denied and shown a map of their current location.

Each geofence can be assigned to a specific location, or you can assign job codes to each location to track workers as they switch between specific customers, contracts, and projects. 

Photos on punch

Buddy Punch’s photos on punch feature allows you to crack down on time theft and encourage improved timeliness. With this enabled, employees will be prompted to take a picture as they clock in that is then saved on file. You and your administrators can then check time cards and verify that no one attempted buddy punching — which is when one employee clocks in for another who is late or absent.

Notifications

Construction work is loud, demanding, and dangerous — all of which means it seizes your workers’ attention and can make them forget certain aspects of timekeeping. Buddy Punch’s notifications feature can remind your team members of their obligations throughout the day, as if you were on site with them. 

You can send notifications for punches or to submit time cards for approval, to make sure employees are aware they were late or missed a clock in or clock out, when employees are approaching overtime, and more.

Each and every type of notification can be assigned to one, multiple, or all employees, and you can determine if you and your administrators will also receive these alerts to stay in sync with your workers.

Additional features

There’s plenty more Buddy Punch offers construction companies, such as worker scheduling, time off tracking, overtime calculations, built-in payroll processing, and integrations with popular payroll providers like QuickBooks, ADP, Gusto, and more. 

Click here to view all of Buddy Punch’s features.

User reviews

As of this post’s writing, Buddy Punch is one of the highest rated GPS trackers on popular software review site Capterra, with a score of 4.8/5 stars based on 1,034 reviews. Buddy Punch has high marks in the ease of use, customer service, and value for money categories, something that customer testimonials themselves speak to.

“BuddyPunch makes employee time tracking very easy. Employees just need to be within a geofence (if one is set up) log in and punch in/punch out. They don’t have to jump through endless steps for something that should be straightforward. The user interface is also very user friendly.”

Pricing: Buddy Punch’s plans that include GPS tracking start at $4.49 per user per month plus a $19 per month base fee.

2. Clockshark

ClockShark is a powerful time-tracking app with numerous field service and construction business features that can drastically improve the way you manage your employees. This includes options such as:

• Mobile time tracking: ClockShark allows you to track field workers on the go. This includes monitoring when they clock in and clock out and tracking their time across individual tasks — all in real-time.
• Who’s working now: ClockShark has built-in GPS tracking that sends a ping to mark employee locations on a map every 10-15 minutes. This creates a breadcrumb effect logging their locations as they clock in, clock out, or switch jobs and tasks.
• Conversations: You can use ClockShark to maintain a record of completed tasks and next steps, updating your crew members on the progress of each job. You can also create comment threads to ensure you and your team are aware of any changes on remote job sites.
• Job costing: Manage job-related time and labor expenses through ClockShark’s job costing feature. Track remote labor on tasks from start to finish, assign jobs to specific employees, and export timesheets to your chosen accounting system.

ClockShark has a Capterra score of 4.7 out of 5 stars based on 1,904 reviews (as of this post’s writing). Here’s what one user had to say about their experience:

“ClockShark has made our business run more efficiently! We schedule employees to work multiple job locations, we can confirm their work time/location with the GPS feature, and we have their timesheets online. Customer service is great; they hire great people to answer any question you may have, and if they don’t know, they get back with you.”

3. Workyard

Workyard is a GPS time clock app that was built specifically with field workers and their managers in mind. This precise GPS time clock software comes with many automated features to make employee management, payroll, and job costing a breeze. Options include but are not limited to:

• Precise GPS tracking: Workyard provides precise GPS tracking of employees, including marked map locations, travel distances, and a route tracking system that records your workers’ movement. This minute-by-minute rundown provides business owners with all the information they need to optimize attendance and productivity.
• Automatic clock in & out: Workyard prevents late clock-ins for punctual employees by automatically clocking them in the moment they arrive on site. This feature also works to automatically detect and clock out employees once they leave a job site.
• Automatic project time recording: Workyard automatically assigns time to projects based on location and customizable rules.
• Automatic mileage capture: Worker mileage and travel time is instantly recorded, allowing you to optimize scheduling and task allocation per employee by project.

As of this post’s writing, Workyard has a rating of 4.8/5 stars on Capterra based on 83 reviews. Here’s what one user had to say about their experience:

“We have loved getting onto digital timecards and have found the direct export from Workyard to our payroll company to greatly reduce payroll errors and delays. We strongly recommend this service to any company looking to upgrade their payroll timecards.”

4. Connecteam

Connecteam is an all-in-one employee management app that comes with many GPS tracking and employee management features that make it an asset for construction businesses. Some of these options include:

• GPS tracking: Connecteam tracks GPS locations only while on the clock, preserving team member privacy once they clock out. You can also send automated notifications to remind employees to clock in or clock out.
• Breadcrumb technology: Connecteam provides full visibility of where employees go during their shift, creating a clear visual of the routes employees take along with associated timestamps. These reports can even be sent to clients to verify worker routes.
• Automatic calculations: Connecteam has built-in features to automatically calculate break times, absences, overtime, and PTO for your workers, creating a comprehensive overview of your workforce.
• Training & safety courses: Connecteam gives you the option to create required training and safety courses for your construction workers to complete from their mobile phones.

As of this post’s writing, Connecteam has a Capterra score of 4.7/5 stars based on 347 reviews. Here’s what one user had to say about their experience:

“Connecteam helps me validate the work that each employee does without having to be next to that person. We can communicate as a more united team in the work chat and be able to keep an improved order of the tasks that are pending to be done. This software helps me maintain a perfect order and a production with better results.”

5. QuickBooks Time

QuickBooks is a versatile suite of software that offers many different packages and features, and their construction-focused offerings are just as strong as many of their others. Some of these options include:

• GPS time clock: The QuickBooks GPS monitors real-time GPS location data for all of your employees. This data seamlessly syncs with timesheets to improve accuracy.
• Invoicing: QuickBooks lets you send invoices and estimates for jobs on the go. You can attach plans, contracts, and photos to your invoices, and will receive instance notifications when an invoice is viewed or paid.
• Job costs: QuickBooks lets construction business owners track time and expenses accurately for each project and contract. Data on time spent per project can also be synced seamlessly with QuickBooks Payroll.
• Customizable reports: View income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow all in one place. Generate reports at will and gain greater insight into what works and what doesn’t for your crew.

QuickBooks has a rating of 4.3 out of 5 on Capterra based on 7,796 reviews. One happy customer had this to say:

“I absolutely love Quickbooks for its user-friendly interface and extensive resources that make managing finances quick and easy along with a fantastic array of video tutorials”

6. Timeero

Timeero is a GPS time tracking and mileage tracking app for employees, specializing in location management features for employers. Their features include:

• GPS time clock app: Timeero can be installed on mobile phones to allow construction workers to clock in, clock out, and log their breaks as well as overtime while on the go. Additionally, employee punches automatically record team member locations.
• Geofencing: Timeero lets you create a virtual boundary around a specific area using GPS technology. This restricts where employees can clock in and out.
• Facial recognition: Timeero uses biometric facial recognition to combat the most common form of time theft — buddy punching.
• Mileage tracking: Timeero allows you to automatically track your team members’ traveling routes and mileage throughout the day, which is a strong feature if you have remote workers rotating between various job sites. You can even use the route replay feature to get a closer look at how your team members traveled from site to site, and then optimize their travel efficiency to improve productivity.

Timeero has a score of 4.4/5 stars on Capterra based on 74 reviews. Here’s what one reviewer had to say:

“The auto clock-in and out feature is the best feature for me, followed by having the ability to have multiple locations enabled for employees who move around and don’t stick to one location. Having the ability for staff to input their schedule as well as input schedules for them helps with the variety of different situations a staffing company faces.”

7. Time Doctor

Time Doctor is a popular workforce management app that focuses on improving productivity for teams through powerful insights and data-driven optimization. They have several features that make this a useful tool to manage a construction crew, such as:

• Time tracking: Time Doctor offers both manual or automatic time tracking, depending on which mode would prove more useful for your workforce. Manual allows employees to quickly start and stop a timer, while automatic mode allows the Time Doctor app to track time the employees start working.
• Work schedules: Time Doctor lets you customize individual employee schedules and work shifts. You can also import and export employees into the software easily.
• Attendance reports: Time Doctor’s attendance reports offer detailed insight into workforce attendance. See who’s present, who’s absent, or who’s developing a habit of tardiness. This updates in real-time, allowing you to see when employees are currently at work (marked as “shift underway”).
• Payroll management: TIme Doctor makes it easy to transfer employee data over to payroll once you’re ready, integrating directly with popular tools such as Wise, Gusto, and even PayPal for convenient payments. You can also export timesheets in PDF, CSV, and XLS format.

As of this post’s writing, Time Doctor has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 on Capterra based on 534 reviews, with users saying things such as:

“It is pretty convenient to install and work with. It allows us to track time and improve productivity. It gives you complete control over your work. The effective reporting system helps you figure out a better use of your time. It provides browsing history, top website, and poor management of time.”

8. Tenna

Tenna is a construction technology platform designed to monitor construction equipment to manage attendance and improve security on remote job sites. Their goal is to maximize connectivity between field, shop, and office. Their offerings include:

• One platform: Tenna has a single platform that allows you to manage your entire fleet of vehicles, and it can integrate well with many common business systems. This makes fleet management, maintenance, safety and compliance easier to manage all at once.
• Equipment management: Tenna uses dashboards to provide a high-level overview of your fleet. This shows everything from value of owned equipment versus rentals to utilization and maintenance. 
• Safety AI dash cam: Ensure your workers are maintaining safety regulations as they traverse job sites with a camera that notifies you of any dangerous driving events and provides real-time video footage of on-road incidents.
• Theft prevention: Tenna uses job sites and geofencing to monitor site locations, asset trackers to maintain equipment visibility, and notifications for when assets are moving during unauthorized hours.

Tenna has a rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars on Capterra with 52 reviews. Here’s what one user had to say:

“We tried other fleet systems in the past, and once we came across Tenna, we haven’t looked back. The software and hardware are unmatched by previous competitors we tried. Customer support is excellent. Anytime I need new hardware or have any questions our account rep is quick to make sure we are taken care of.”

9. Titan GPS

Titan GPS is an equipment GPS tracking tool designed to track unauthorized usage, automated routine maintenance, and maximize utilization. Their features include:

• GPS fleet tracking: Equip both powered and non-powered assets with tracking devices that can provide a birds-eye view of operations. Know where equipment has been, is currently, and where it’s going via Google Maps integration.
• Vehicle tracking: Ensure your vehicles are driven safely, and only when necessary. Titan GPS provides an overview of routing time and GPS locations in addition to dash cams equipped with cloud-based footage to ensure drive safety.
• Equipment tracking: IoT (Internet of things) tracking device allows you to create reports and alerts for construction equipment location, utilization, driver ID, and unauthorized use. Graphical dashboard provides real-time location updates of where your assets are.
• Dispatch software: Titan GPS lets you streamline your dispatch for productivity and speed. Eliminate time-wasting calls to your team on the road and plan your dispatch workflow with clear records of jobs completed. 

As of this post’s writing, Titan GPS has a Capterra score of 4.3/5 with 68 reviews. Here’s what one user had to say about it:

“Vehicle abuse has dropped significantly because drivers know that it is possible to track them. In the past, we had people park damaged units at the Automotive Bay anonymously and we could not hold anyone accountable for the damage. “

10. Samsara

Samsara is a digital platform designed to help construction, field services, and warehousing companies achieve better safety, efficiency, and sustainability. They achieve this by offering features such as:

• Video-based safety: Samsara makes use of AI-Cameras, driver coaching, safety reports, and in-cab alerts to ensure that construction drivers are both protected and empowered to build safe habits. Videos can be retrieved on-demand.
• Vehicle telematics: Samsara functions as a command center for fleet operations. Observe your workers with real-time data on an interactive map that provides vehicle diagnostics to facilitate improved route performance, fleet efficiency, and customer service.
• Equipment monitoring: Get 360-degree visibility for your equipment at remote job sites. Prevent loss and theft with real-time GPS and geofence alerts for improved asset tracking. 
• Workforce apps: Use the Samsara API to connect all your systems to one app. Integrate training and reward programs to provide incentive and capability for your crew to improve.

As of this post’s writing, Samsara has a rating of 4.4 on Capterra, based on 656 reviews. One user had this to say: 

“They have very good response time on their customer service. My drivers are not waiting for hours to talk with somebody on a problem. If it’s a problem that is not resolved immediately ,they are quick to move it up the food chain and get the problem or issue solved.“

GPS tracking compliance

Before implementing GPS tracking for your construction business, make sure you understand the laws and regulations regarding employer GPS tracking in your state. 

In general, it’s good to inform your employees that they’ll be tracked by GPS by having them sign a written GPS tracking policy. This will prevent your employees from feeling like the tracking is an invasion of their privacy even if it’s not required by law, and it will protect you in states where employee consent is required.

You’ll also want to make sure that you’re only tracking employees’ locations while they’re on the clock (the right time clock app with GPS makes this easy), and you can generally only legally install GPS tracking hardware on company-owned equipment and vehicles.

And while it may feel like your employees will be against GPS tracking, a QuickBooks Time study shows that’s not necessarily the case. Employees don’t mind being tracked as long as they know it’s happening — in fact, 7 out of 10 employees say they’re fine with their employers knowing their location during work hours.