Telematics – the use of telecommunications in vehicles to manage mobile fleets – has been around ever since the advent of GPS for civilian use in the mid 1990s. The concept itself is easy to understand - the use of a cellular or satellite network to transmit GPS location coordinates and real-time engine information to a dispatcher, fleet manager and operations manager. What is difficult is to grasp the benefits of telematics in business applications.

The application often associated with telematics is Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) or Location Based Services (LBS) used for dispatch services. Dispatch applications have become more sophisticated recently with the introduction of virtual geo-fences overlaid on Google Maps or Microsoft’s Bing Map and the correlation of vehicle speeds with posted road speed limits to affect driving behaviour.

Engine monitoring, the other component of telematics, has evolved from monitoring diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs) to extracting fleet management information such as odometer readings, fuel usage data, and idling. With this rich lode of tools to manage a fleet and its dispatch operation, you would think that the benefits of telematics would be obvious and that fleet managers would have an easy task of making the case to their management to introduce the technology.

This, however, is not the case. While many large fleets have recognized the tangible benefits of telematics and have adjusted their business processes to integrate telematics data into their operations, many small to medium sized firms still struggle to justify making the capital investment. This paper examines the key drivers and how they affect Return on Investment...

What are the benefits of using fleet management software?
Mukhtar Rahemtulla

Fleet management software has been available for many years. While it’s prevalent in almost all large organizations, smaller organizations with fleets have yet to come to grips with its benefits. This paper discusses the key elements of a fleet management solution and the benefits of adopting it in smaller fleets. 

Fleet management software tracks the three main cost components of operating a fleet: ownership or leasing costs; maintenance costs; and fuel costs. Each of these categories has to be managed to minimize the total cost per kilometre or mile driven without affecting customer satisfaction or productivity of the service technicians and drivers. Costs of operating a fleet rank only second to labour costs in Organizations and through the proper use of software, these costs can be reduced by 10% - 15% resulting in a payback period of a few months. Yet, many smaller sized fleet operators  still depend on the owner or their fleet manager’s knowledge to manage the fleet. This was alright as long as fleets had fewer than say, 50 vehicles and fleet managers could apply their experience to determine, optimal fleet sizes; when to perform major service maintenance, and when to dispose of vehicles.  

However, with experienced fleet managers retiring and the increasing trend towards cutting staff and containing costs, Organizations no longer have house expertise and cannot spend as much time weighing their options or generating manual reports to make informed decisions. This can lead to an inefficient allocation of fleet resources and over time, can make an Organization uncompetitive. Fleet management software provides many of the benefits that an experienced fleet manager would have intuitively brought to the job and it has now become an essential tool for smaller Organizations.

What makes a telematic device different?
Mukhtar Rahemtulla

There are countless devices on the market in a casual web search under “telematics” . Most fleet managers looking for a solution for their fleets would be bewildered by the wide selection available. While there are many devices under the broad umbrella of telematics, few will meet the exact requirements of the fleet manager. But how does one make a choice that meets the fleet manager’s requirement without deferring the recommendation to outside consultants?  This brief delves into some of the features and specifications that you as the fleet manager should be aware of when writing a statement of work or making a purchasing decision...