Grondwerken Degro

Lode Desot founded Grondwerken Degro in 1991, at the time a true family business. His brothers Lieven and Leslie and his father Wilfried soon joined the team. From 1995 onwards, Degro began recruiting staff from outside the family, and the company grew into a fully fledged SME serving private clients, industrial customers and public authorities.

Strong growth made the original site too small, which led to a move to larger premises in 2006. That gave Degro more capacity and room to expand further. In 2011 the subsidiary Degrocon was set up for container rental, and 2012 saw the opening of a concrete plant.

Today Degro employs 35 people and is an established name in South-West Flanders and the Belgian coastal region. The company specialises in earthworks, sewerage, water and road works, complemented by services such as demolition, recycling and soil stabilisation. With a modern machine fleet and experienced tradespeople, Degro delivers efficient, high-quality results.

Under the rules of the certification bodies CERTIPRO and COPRO, every licensed mobile crusher in Flanders must be tracked digitally. This means Degro is required to send data such as the site location, the operating status and the active hours of its crushers to a central database managed by VITO.

That reporting had to be accurate and automatic, without adding administrative work for the team. Degro therefore needed to put in place a reliable and efficient solution that met every requirement.

To solve this, Degro chose the GeoDynamics track & trace system. The system sets up an automatic connection with the VITO server, so the required data is sent through in real time without anyone at Degro having to do this by hand.

Beyond the mandatory reporting, the system brings further benefits that improve Degro’s day-to-day operations:

• Real-time location – Degro can see exactly where its machines are, which supports more efficient deployment and planning.
• Maintenance planning – The system monitors the operating hours of each machine, so maintenance can be scheduled in good time. That makes the machines more reliable and prevents unexpected downtime.
• Better performance and a longer service life – Because Degro knows exactly how intensively each machine is used, it can plan more efficiently and extend the working life of its fleet.

With the GeoDynamics track & trace solution in place, Degro not only meets the legal requirements but has also improved the efficiency, maintenance planning and overall performance of its machine fleet. That makes the company more competitive and more sustainable in its sector.