Telematics: Control telematics before it controls you

By Tim Eaves, commercial director, In-Car Cleverness

Telematics has changed. Not long ago, it was simply about keeping track of your fleet of vehicles.

But, as fleet managers are finding an ever-increasing need for greater control of their vehicles and to reduce operational costs, maximise efficiencies and to ensure they carry out their duty of care, next-generation telematics has become an increasingly-important tool.

Despite this need, the number of fleet, leasing and contract hire companies making full use of this new telemetry is surprisingly low.

The reasons for this are three-fold.

Firstly, the scale of almost every fleet is different; therefore, so are the needs of its manager. Until now, there has been no scalable solution that suits a fleet of 50 cars as well as a fleet of 5,000.

Similarly, the problem of a non-tailored system has made it tricky for a one-size-fits all solution to be designed, as every fleet manager will place emphasis on different, measurable criteria.

But by far the biggest problem is one, ironically, of the telematics industry’s own making.

Far from being limited in scope any more, the breadth of features now available to fleet managers can be somewhat bewildering and the truth is that while they may be under pressure from corporate clients to use a telemetry-based system to better control costs, there is widespread uncertainty from leasing companies about what they want that system to do.

That these changes have happened in telematics is both beyond question and inevitable.

The clock is ticking and only the fearful would try and stop it.

The sensible course is to accept the changes, study them and ensure they can work for you.

Next-generation telematics opens up endless possibilities, adding value to contract hire and leasing propositions and enabling businesses to understand and manage their fleets like never before.

Telematics has changed and it will continue to do so. The answer is to embrace this next generation offering and control its potential before its potential controls you.