Running a five-state heavy civil operation on crinkled paperwork was quietly eroding Summers-Taylor’s efficiency, safety, and schedule. By replacing guesswork with real-time field data through HCSS, the company proved that quality really can be its shield.
The Problem
Summers-Taylor’s motto is “Quality is our shield,” and in the past the company was trying to run a massive, multi-state safety and maintenance program using the “paperwork shuffle.” With 500 vehicles and over 1,000 pieces of equipment, reliance on physical runners meant that safety reports often arrived days late and had questionable reliability. If paper wasn’t lost or crinkled up along the way, mechanics wasted hours driving to jobsites blind, unable to fix undefined problems in a single trip. This disconnect created a disorganized lag that threatened their efficiency, safety, and reporting processes.
The Solution
The low probability of paper reaching its destination, combined with wasted travel time, meant that Summers-Taylor needed to bring the office to the field. Leadership decided to empower their workforce with the HCSS platform (Safety, Fleet, HeavyJob). The goal was to bridge the gap between the muddy reality of the jobsite and the main office. Despite fears that field crews “don’t do computers,” the transition was seamless. By showing foremen that a safety/inspection report or work order was just a “couple of clicks away” on an iPad, Safety Director Jesse Jacobsen unlocked a flood of real-time data.
The Outcome
Cutting the time it takes to address equipment health in half and improving operational uptime was a key victory. The change in the shop was dramatic. Now, when a machine breaks, the foreman snaps a photo of the specific part, like a blown hydraulic hose, and sends it instantly to create a work order. The mechanic receives the image, builds the exact hose needed, and makes the repair in one trip, cutting the maintenance action time in half. This isn’t just about efficiency; it’s also about respecting the foreman’s time and the project’s schedule.
"The benefits have already proven themselves in lowering our EMR and improving our vehicle fleet. So, we'll keep looking towards HCSS to continue to improve."
— Jesse Jacobsen, Safety Director, Summers-Taylor
The Victory: Eliminating waste for a safer, prouder workforce
Summers-Taylor operates across a region spanning Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, and Alabama. While the company’s motto has long been “Quality is our shield,” earlier operations relied heavily on paper-based processes, resulting in a safety communication system that varied across projects. As a fourth-generation, family-owned company, continued growth (including strategic acquisitions) required the development of consistent standards to support an expanding operation. That meant relying on runners to carry important documents back and forth between the office and the jobsite.
The lag time was crippling. “The likelihood of it getting to us in a timely manner was pretty slim,” says Safety Director Jesse Jacobsen. When the paperwork arrived, it was often crinkled or illegible. A poor process broke the line of communication. If a foreman called in a broken machine, the maintenance manager had to send a mechanic out just to diagnose the issue. The mechanic would drive to the site, identify the problem, drive back to the shop to get parts, and then return to fix it, wasting hours on travel.
Standardizing across the board
“You’ll never improve,” recalls Jacobsen when thinking of changes that needed to happen. “If you want to keep doing the old stuff and keep acting like a small company, that’s the way you’ll always be: a small company. If we want to act like the big boys, and grow, and get better, and streamline our processes, and standardize, then we need to have a tool to do that. Taking advantage of HCSS has helped us out.”
To grow, leadership decided to standardize its processes and deploy HCSS Safety, Equipment360, and HeavyJob across the board.
The transformation required the team to overcome the common industry pushback: “I don’t do computers”. Jacobsen countered this by proving the tool’s simplicity. He showed foremen that submitting a report was just a few clicks on an iPad, far easier than managing stacks of paper. This buy-in was critical. Once the crews realized the technology made their jobs easier, not more complicated, the data began to flow.
As the safety data also came in faster, Jacobsen replaced the old way of looking at lagging indicators with being able to predict leading indicators. With paper safety, Summers-Taylor only became aware of problems after the paperwork arrived. With the HCSS Safety Dashboard, Jacobsen adopted a proactive approach.
He began analyzing real-time data to spot trends. If the dashboard showed a spike in incidents on specific days or times, he could intervene immediately. “Showing our leaders which day of the week and the time of day we have most of our incidents has allowed them to have those conversations about slowing down,” Jacobsen notes.
The obsession with quality paid its biggest dividends in safety. Summers-Taylor slashed its EMR from 1.15 to 0.68. To further enhance efficiency in the field, the team carried digitized business-card-sized licenses with HCSS QR codes, allowing employees to instantly prove their skills. “The numbers don’t lie,” Jacobsen says. “Everything’s paid off”. By destroying the paper barrier, Summers-Taylor not only improved its bottom line but also ensured that its “shield” of quality was stronger than ever.
Improving the DOT safety rating on the scale
For a heavy civil contractor, nothing stings quite like a roadside shutdown. It kills revenue, delays customers, and damages the company’s hard-earned reputation. Determined to protect its “shield” of quality, Summers-Taylor used HCSS to transform its fleet inspections.
Now, drivers catch defects digitally before the truck ever leaves the yard. The shop is alerted instantly, ensuring that every vehicle hitting the highway is safe and compliant. The organization has a better DOT safety score, but the real prize is in the peace of mind that comes from knowing drivers are safe and deliveries are on time.
A partnership for what’s next
Summers-Taylor has moved past the frustration of the “paperwork shuffle” and the human cost of inefficiency. But the industry is shifting again, with AI and automation moving faster than ever before. What can a large-scale civil and heavy construction company do to continue to embrace technology that can make them even more efficient without losing quality? As experts at breaking ground on undeveloped land, Summers-Taylor has found a partner it trusts to guide it through this new digital terrain. By collaborating with HCSS, Summers-Taylor isn’t just fixing today’s operations; it is future-proofing its business for whatever innovation comes next.
“In the future, I see us expanding on HCSS’s capabilities, really because of what they’ve given us,” says Jacobsen. “The benefits have already proven themselves in lowering our EMR and improving our vehicle fleet. So, we’ll keep looking towards HCSS to continue to improve.”
Ready to experience transformative results like Summers-Taylor? Get a demo fast.
