How telematics bring financial advantages to fleet managers?
Fleet and transportation businesses of every size are growing fast. Whether it be small goods delivering vans to nationwide delivery services with hundreds of trucks and vans, there are various parts coming into play within fleet management. And thanks to telematic solutions, these companies are able to manage their fleet smoothly and efficiently while earning financial success.
Let’s learn more about telematics and how it brings financial advantages to fleet managers.
What exactly is telematics
Telematics is the advanced technology used to monitor various types of information regarding a singular vehicle or an entire fleet. With a telematics system, fleet managers can gather data including the behavior of the driver, activity, and location of the vehicle, and use them on a digital platform to manage resources.
How fleet managers can get financial advantages from telematics
Listed below are some of the ways in which telematics can provide financial advantages to fleet managers:
Significant reduction in insurance cost
Fleet monitoring systems like GPS trackers help track a vehicle in case they have deviated from its expected course. The fleet manager will be quickly notified which will help them come up with relevant solutions to prevent the theft of items or the vehicle itself.
The drivers will also drive the company vehicle more responsibly as their behavior will be strictly under surveillance. Due to this most insurance companies provide special discounts on vehicles equipped with GPS tracking devices. This will fleet help managers save quite an amount.
The cost of fuel is significantly reduced
Fuel consumption is a major factor that leads to heavy costs facing fleets. Detecting such excessive fuel use and reducing them is necessary to maintain efficiency. Fleet managers can save money on fuel if they employ telematic solutions like sensors and GPS devices.
With the help of telematics solutions, fleet managers can plan for more direct routes, reduce engine idling, cutting down job site bottlenecks, while detecting unauthorized use of the vehicle or equipment.
Save on vehicle diagnostics and maintenance
Vehicle diagnosis and maintenance are other factors that can increase the expense of a fleet company. Finding issues and fixing them early is extremely necessary if fleet managers want to reduce the costs of maintenance.
Fleet managers can use telematic solutions like ELD (Electronic Logging Device) that can automatically connect to a vehicle’s diagnostic port and allows it to monitor faulty codes. This will help fleet managers to stay ahead of vehicle maintenance issues with real-time detailed reports and take precautionary and preventive measures at the right time.
Improved communication
In earlier times, fleet managers found it difficult to stay in touch with the drivers in the field. The drivers had to check in and report back from time to time. This put a burden on the company’s budget as the vehicle consumed more fuel due to each journey.
With telematics solutions such as ELD and GPS, communication processes have been simplified. Driver and the operators don’t need to check in or report back as most of the process has been automated. These data are easily accessible by the fleet managers, which allows them to deal with it faster and concentrate on the more important job while also saving time and fuel for the vehicles.
Fleet safety and security are greatly enhanced
The safety and security of vehicles and their drivers are extremely necessary for any fleet business. If they get in any kind of accident or other dangerous situations, the company has to pay for the loss of goods and the injured driver. This will significantly increase the budget of the company.
Having telematic solutions like ELDs, GPS devices or sensors will significantly reduce the risk of accidents. The fleet managers can use these devices to predetermine safe routes that the drivers can use, get alerted in case of unauthorized use of the vehicle, etc. Due to this, the chances of accidents are greatly reduced while efficiency is enhanced.
Vehicle utilization is maximized
Previously fleet companies need to use most of their vehicle for deliveries. They didn’t know how to utilize the vehicles efficiently. With the help of a GPS tracking system fleet managers can maximize vehicle utilization.
The fleet managers will be able to identify and eliminate any idle time and reduce fuel consumption and over-speeding with the help of telematics systems. With these devices in hand, they can reduce the number of vehicles used and maximize the utilization of one vehicle thus saving a good amount of money.
Satisfaction of the customers
Customer satisfaction is a significant part of any business. Fleet managers need to make sure that their customers are fully satisfied and always choose their company for any delivery services.
Fleet managers can use telematic solutions like GPS tracking devices that will let the customer know where the delivery vehicle is and show them the estimated time of arrival. With this information transparency between the buyer and the company can be maintained. With timely delivery, customers will be satisfied and will use the company’s services more and may even inform others to use the company’s fleet services. This will lead to a loyal customer base and profit for the company.
Conclusion
In today’s era telematics is slowly but surely becoming an important part of the fleet and transportation industry. Not only is the cost of installing and managing a telematics system low, the savings the company gets and the efficiency of operations straight out fantastic. With telematic technologies like ELDs and GPS tracking devices, the industry will evolve further.
FAQs
Which vehicles can use a telematics system?
Most modern commercial vehicles are suited for telematics use. Many commercial vehicle manufacturers nowadays install in-built GPS tracking and telematic systems in fleet trucks or vans. Most commercial vehicles can be installed with these devices that are powered either by internal batteries or the vehicle’s electrical system.
How does a telematics system usually work?
Most telematics system utilizes a fleet vehicle’s GPS tracking device to send, receive and store telemetry data. Connected to an onboard diagnostics port or CAN bus port with a sim card, this device communicates with the fleet company’s central server via a wireless network. The telematic data collected will be transmitted through various methods to the main server where it will be analyzed and viewed by the operator via the website.
What are the major components of a telematics system?
Listed below are some of the important components of a telematics system:
- SIM card
- Central server
- GPS tracking device
- Software system for fleet communication
- Accelerometer
- Engine interface
- Buzzer
- Input/output system
Is the telematics system legal?
Telematics systems are mandated by the government thus it is legal in every state although every state has its own unique law regarding it. So, one must make sure to check the state laws they are in to understand all the requirements and whether they are in compliance.
What do you need to know about fleet management software?
The digital tools used by fleet businesses to manage, track and maintain vehicles are known as fleet management software. This software is mainly comprised of a cloud or web-based GPS tracking system that provides all necessary information regarding the vehicles and the drivers in real-time so that the fleet manager can assess them and make the operation efficient.
Terry Whysong is an Automotive Enthusiast and the face behind TTR. He’s an avid reader, mechanic and loves writing blogs about car guides. You can find him on Linkedin
