Deployment blueprint
A ground handler runs hundreds of units across dozens of stands. Plenty of them have no ignition, no plate and no service record, so the only way to find one is to drive the apron and look. We put all of them on one live map, count the hours each unit really ran, and show you which ones sit parked while you rent more.
Built for this scale
The challenges
Four things go wrong on almost every ramp. None of them are really software problems — they are record-keeping problems that software happens to fix.
Challenge
Dollies, ULD carts, chocks and passenger stairs have no engine and no odometer, so nothing about them generates a record. The inventory is whatever the last physical count said it was, and locating one specific unit means walking the apron until you see it.
Challenge
With no real engine hours, nobody can prove a unit is idle. So peak season arrives, the ramp reports a shortage, and short-term rentals go on the books alongside equipment that has been parked for three weeks.
Challenge
An airline says the loader arrived late. The handler says it was there. Without a timestamped record of which unit was at which stand and when, that gets settled by whoever argues harder — and it is rarely the handler.
Challenge
Airside driving permits expire on a date nobody is actively watching. Often the first time anyone notices is a spot check, an audit, or an incident involving a driver who should not have been on the apron that morning.
How it would work
Start with the equipment, because that is where the money comes back and it needs nothing from anybody else's systems. Wired devices go on the powered units and read genuine engine hours. Battery tags go on the towed kit. Stands, service roads and restricted areas get drawn as zones once. From day one that gives you a live apron map, real hours per unit, utilisation by equipment class, and service intervals that key off actual usage instead of the calendar.
The architectural point
Straight answer on where we stand: we have not run this at an airport yet. What we have run is the harder half — authorities supervising fleets they do not own, scored against contracts, with evidence that holds up when a contractor disputes it. A handler answering an airline on turnaround times is that same problem wearing different clothes. The genuinely new part is flight context, and that is an integration we would scope with you rather than pretend is already built.
Units live
214
Idle 7+ days
38
Permits expiring
6
Stands active
41
Apron · live
liveBelt loader 12 · idle 9 days
Pool C · no engine hours logged
Tug 44 · entered restricted zone
Taxiway link · 06:12
Power unit 07 · service due
412 h since last interval
GSE engine hours · last 12 days
Illustrative console view — sample data, not a live operation.
Platform capabilities
Roughly the order we would switch things on — equipment first, because it pays for itself before anything else is connected.
Real runtime for every powered unit, so hire decisions, utilisation arguments and service intervals stop running on estimates.
ExploreBattery tags on dollies, ULD carts and stairs. No wiring, no power source, and they report for months at a time.
ExploreEach stand, service road and restricted area as a live boundary. Entry, exit and dwell time all become events you can report on.
ExploreEvery tracked unit in one view, updating in under a second, so the ramp stops phoning around to find a serviceable loader.
ExplorePermit and licence expiry per driver, plus control over which staff are allowed to operate which unit.
Checklists with geotagged photographs, filed the moment the walk is finished rather than typed up at the end of a shift.
ExploreHardware in the field
Worth planning for honestly: fitting anything airside is a programme, not a truck-roll. Passes, escorts and engineering sign-off all take time.
Ignition and engine-hour capture on tugs, loaders, power units and ambulifts. Device-agnostic, so you are not tied to one supplier.
ExploreFitted without wiring to the half of the fleet that has no power of its own, which is usually the half nobody can find.
ExploreInspection walks, stand checks and incident capture on a device that survives a ramp shift.
ExplorePlain GPS will not reliably separate stand B12 from B13 — terminals and jet bridges bounce the signal too much. Where that precision genuinely matters we would add beacons or RTK rather than claim GPS can do it.
Integrations
Three of these are routine for us. The first one is the real project, and we would rather flag that now than at the kick-off meeting.
Turnaround timing only means anything once it is joined to a flight: which stand, which aircraft, on-block and off-block. That means integrating the airport operational database and the A-CDM milestones. It is the largest single build on this page and not something we would quote blind.
Engine hours feed your existing maintenance planner, so service intervals come off real usage instead of a spreadsheet.
Driver permits and airside authorisations reconcile against the records HR already keeps, so expiry warnings come from one source.
Staff and handler access authenticate against your existing directory, scoped by position in the organisation tree.
FAQ
Short answers here — the detailed version is a conversation whenever you're ready.
Discuss your deployment
Sovereign-data-friendly. Enterprise multi-org architecture. Built to integrate with the devices, SIM providers, and back-office systems you already run.
