It’s a smartphone world. The iPhone and Android mobile phones have been around for less than a decade, yet with every day that passes, more and more users wonder what they ever did without the gadgets.
Believe it or not, they aren’t just for playing Angry Birds and Words with Friends, or tracking your local pro sports team, seeing what friends and family are up to on Facebook, or Tweeting to the world what you think about the issue of the moment.
As any user already knows, and the growing number of converts are about to find out, there are a nearly infinite number of apps out there — tiny, dedicated programs that can fetch your email, manage your grocery list, connect you with your bank, even help you keep a diary of your favorite beers. And that is just the beginning.
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“There’s so much information and so many things you can use them for,” says Lyle Balistreri, president of the Milwaukee Area Building and Construction Trades Council. “With a smartphone, you’re carrying around a mini computer in your pocket.”
Younger generations of workers are particularly attuned to smartphones as part of their everyday lives, Balistreri points out. “They don’t communicate in the same way we did when we were young — they utilize those phones for everything.”
The building trades council represents the labor side in joint labor-management apprenticeship training programs, and is eager to recruit new apprentice candidates to give the employers working with the council’s member unions a steady supply of skilled labor into the future. So Balistreri’s organization is putting together new campaigns to recruit candidates for those apprenticeship programs that make use of smartphone technology: the brochures will have QR codes that can be read with a smartphone to unlock information about career opportunities in the trade and lead the reader to Web links with information about employers.
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Balistreri points out that not every employer welcomes smartphones on the job — for fear that they will be a distraction at work rather than a useful tool.
But as the gizmos become even more ubiquitous, you can expect to find more and more of them used at work, not just at play.
We took a look at the sorts of apps out there that could be especially interesting to people in various skilled trades. There are a lot of them; here are some we think you’ll find the most useful, depending on your specific line of work.
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Unless otherwise indicated, those listed here are Android only; some providers have promised iPhone versions but unless indicated, they are not yet available.
Click on the app name to go directly to the app store.
MANAGING THE FLEET
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tpMobile
Cost: Depends on fleet size
Developer/Provider: XRS Corp. (formerly Xata Corp.)
Website: www.xrscorp.com
This mobile Android app helps drivers and fleet managers stay in compliance with hours of service (HOS) regulations for drivers while also tracking a range of other vehicle data, from fuel economy to engine repair warnings. It requires a subscription to the Turnpike package, produced, like tpMobile, by XRS, formerly XATA.
Fleet managers can obtain the data for their crews from a secure website. The app keeps driving logs that help drivers and employers avoid inadvertently violating HOS terms. A separately ordered RouteTracker device can be connected to the smartphone via Bluetooth wireless technology.
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BigRoad
Cost: Free
Developer/Provider: BigRoad
Website: www.bigroad.com
BigRoad is free electronic driver log app; it works by itself, but also is a marketing gateway to the company’s BigRoad Web-based fleet management app, which costs $15 per month per truck registered with it.
The app keeps daily driver logs and tracks U.S. and Canada HOS rules. It offers vehicle inspection reports as well as GPS-based location check-in. It has a variety of locating features (for truck stops, dealers, weigh scales, and so on) and provides GPS-based real-time traffic monitoring. Additional features coordinate with the fleet management web app. And there’s two-way messaging with other BigRoad users in the fleet.
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Oil and Gas Solutions
Cost: $15
Developer/Provider: Lithium Interactive Studios
Website: www.listudios.net
The Oil and Gas Solutions app from Lithium Interactive Studios is an electronic reference book and calculator for managing well information and notes as well as calculating a wide range of metrics that are relevant in the field, from Annular Velocity to Wet Pressure Loss. (The developer describes the business as a “one-man shop” and notes that he is the brother of an oil and gas driller, leading him to develop the app.)
There are also reference records that can be used to save data such as drill pipe and casing information and more, and there are well-management features that allow you to keep track of information on each well. Unit conversion algorithms allow you to choose what form — such as metric or English measures — you want to record your data in.
Oilfield Essentials
Cost: $12.65 (Android), $9.99 (iPhone/iPad)
Developer/Provider: Ivectorn
Website: www.ivectorn.com
The Oilfield Essentials app from Ivectorn is another reference/calculator app for the oil and gas industry carrying calculations that are routinely used in drilling and oilfield operations (like the directional driller’s survey analysis, various pump output calculations, drilling cost analysis, and so on). The principals behind the development firm also come out of the energy industry.
Construction Daily Report Log
Cost: $4.99
Developer/Provider: Hurov’s Pocket Pro Apps
Website: www.hurovspocketproapps.com
The Construction Daily Report Log from Hurov’s Pocket Pro Apps generates daily project reports, able to be emailed as PDFs (daily huddle, today’s progress, problems/discussions/delays, rentals, materials). The developer describes it as suitable for a wide range of trades as well as allied businesses, including insurance adjusters, IT, and mold remediation, just as examples.
The providers of this app also have a number of others for the industry:
Punch List
Cost: $4.99
This app offers users one central location to store daily project lists. You can manage multiple projects, email project details as PDFs or spreadsheets, attach photos from a camera or a phone, and add comments.
Time and Material
Cost: $4.99
This app allows you to document additional work demands that go beyond the customer’s contract, complete with software to generate change order proposal letters as PDF files. There is even an additional work authorization signature screen.
Contractor Expense Log
Cost: $4.99
Developer/Provider: Marketing Streams/Cosey Management LLC
Website: www.marketingstreams.com
The Contractor Expense Log app from Marketing Streams tracks rent, utilities, supplies, property, business travel and meals, loans, taxes, other business expenses, and so on. (Although the developer does have some iPhone/iPad apps, Contractor Expense Log is Android only.)
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