MCS in three words
7 February 2023
MCS has incorporated the what3words location system into its hire management software, which uses words instead of numbers or letters to find exact locations. This is designed to make information easier to remember, to say over the phone and to enter into a mobile device.
The company’s Transport Mobile module already includes longitude and latitude to provide a precise location, but what3words makes it easier to navigate by cutting out complicated coordinates.
This means less time is wasted trying to deliver or collect equipment and when technicians are required to undertake repairs, refuelling or toilet servicing, they can quickly locate where the asset is on site.
“Often, it can be difficult to locate equipment on a busy construction or event site, and a street address often isn’t accurate enough to specify precise locations, such as building entrances and across rural areas,” said Nick Thomson, MCS Sales Director.”
He added that the MCS Rental Software app uses Bing maps which links easily with what3words, and that the system will still work even without a phone signal or data connection as a location can be viewed and navigated using compass mode.
● what3words has mapped the globe into more than 50 trillion individual 3m by 3m squares denoted by three-word juxtapositions, leading to quirky results in some instances. My house, for example, has the identity ‘allows.absent.immune’; the southbound Watford Gap services is ‘regularly.whizzed.bypasses’; and 10 Downing Street has the tag ‘slurs.this.shark’. Apparently, an area of Carrizo Springs in Texas has the identity ‘huge.chunky.head’, Millard County in Utah has ‘cats.with.thumbs’, while a square near Griffith Island in the Arctic Ocean can be found using ‘drunk.skunks.rule’.
