In the Fleet Van hot seat this month is Jeremy Gould, TomTom Work sales manager UK

What exactly does your job entail?

My job involves delivering first-class products and services to our customers through a network of value-added resellers.

And, to date, it has been very successful with more than 80,000 vehicles equipped with our telematics solutions.

How is your company faring in the current recession?

Compared to many other companies, we are doing well.

It is precisely at this time that companies are looking at ways of reducing costs and improving efficiency within their businesses and TomTom Work can help them achieve this.

In addition, customers are being very selective about who they choose to work with.

While many other telematics companies are struggling just to survive, TomTom Work continues to innovate and develop its products and services and this counts for a great deal as companies are looking for a solution not just for today but for the next three to five years.

 
There are hundreds of telematics firms around at present, seemingly offering virtually identical services. What, in your view, makes TomTom different?

We are the only telematics provider which owns our solution from end to end, manufacturing and developing all of the components ourselves.

This means that we avoid all the common failings of solutions that involve buying hardware from different suppliers and developing services on a platform that they do not really control.

As a result we offer a robust platform that is truly future-proof.

 
We have read in the papers that some firms are likely to go out of business soon, leaving fleets with contracts with a bill to pay and no service. Is this true and what guarantees for the future would TomTom give?

It is absolutely true and customers need to be extremely vigilant when choosing their telematics supplier.

Even some of the more established companies are struggling to survive at the moment.

TomTom Work, as part of TomTom, provides customers with the security that, not only will we still be around in the future but that we will continue to develop our solution.

At TomTom Work, we have already released three major upgrades to our Webfleet software this year, each providing our customers with some valuable new features, including driving events and dashboard reporting.

In addition, we have released three new products, the GO9000, the GO7000 and Trucknav, as well continuing to invest large sums of money into our data centre and support infrastructure to ensure that our customers get the best possible experience of using our products.
 
Some companies offer a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) service rather than being tied to a fixed contract. Would you recommend this and if not, why not?

While PAYG may seem to be an attractive proposition from the customer’s perspective in terms of flexibility, it is worth exploring the potential risks associated with PAYG for the customer and the supplier.

For a telematics supplier to offer a PAYG option, it means funding the hardware upfront themselves.

This has a big impact on their cash-flow and a knock-on effect on their ability to sustain the levels of investment required, not only to keep innovating and developing their platform, but also to provide the levels of service and support required to the customer.

 

In reality, suppliers offering PAYG models need to have an existing business that is generating the large amounts of cash required to fund the necessary hardware investments and the service and support for a growing customer base.

The customer therefore needs to weigh up the short-term gain against the potential pain.

What happens when the supplier is no longer able to sustain the model or, even worse, can no longer provide the basic service at all as it has run out of money?

In order to maximise their return on investment, customers need to be looking for a supplier that has a healthy financial background and a sustainable business model.

Do you have any new products on the market and if so what are they?

Our most recent product is the GO9000 which was launched at the beginning of August.

It is a totally unique professional navigation device which allows companies to send out jobs and get accurate mileage reports without the need to install a black box in the vehicle.

It really is a true plug-and-play telematics device.

The telematics industry seems to be moving forward at a rapid pace. Is there a danger that if I buy a system now, it will be out of date in six months’ time?

Yes, it is moving quickly and this is a strong argument for buying a standard solution such as TomTom Work.

Because it is a standard platform, any new releases are available immediately to our entire customer base.

Even the hardware can be upgraded or replaced without any hassle.

Simply swap the new TomTom device and you have exactly the same functionality as before as well as all the new features.

It means no disruption to your business and avoids situations which we see a lot where companies spend a huge amount of money developing a customised solution which by the time it is released, is already out of date.

What kind of products do you envisage being available in the future – say in 10 years’ time?

I see even more ‘connectivity’ within the vehicle.

Already we have traffic information but in the future it will certainly be possible to get further intelligence from the vehicle and from the person in the field to allow companies to further improve efficiency and drive down costs.

I also see telematics as a great way of changing the behaviour of drivers to drive more economically in order to achieve Government and company green targets.
 
Anything else you’d like to tell us about?

Yes – for any truck drivers out there or for any companies with fleets of trucks, we can now offer a navigation solution for you that takes into account road weight restrictions and bridge heights.

It’s been a while coming, but it’s finally here and will be a valuable tool for truck fleets.

TomTom's fleet-specific telematics solutions

What services do you offer specifically for fleets?

We offer an off-the-shelf solution that allows fleet managers to increase vehicle utilisation and reduce costs by monitoring such aspects as out-of-hours vehicle usage, private and business mileage, excessive idling and driver behaviour.

One of the most common criticisms of telematics systems is they provide too much information.

At TomTom Work, we have a suite of exception reports available to our customers and also a new dashboard that shows in a very clear and visual format the performance of the fleet against a number of configurable key performance indicators.

We also offer a Connected Navigation solution that allows jobs to be dispatched directly to the TomTom device and for drivers to report back to the office.