Causeway has issued the following statement to Fleet News about its acquisition in May of the assets of Globallive after the telematics supplier went into liquidation.

"Once it became clear that Globallive Limited would not be able to meet its ongoing obligations nor maintain continuity of the service it was providing to its customers, many of whom were important Causeway customers, Causeway were approached, and acquired the Globallive assets on 12th May 2009.

Causeway did not acquire Globallive Limited.

That company is now in liquidation.

In purchasing the Globallive assets our primary concern was to secure survival of the product and the
key people behind the product so that we could provide continuity of the service.

Having achieved this, we have been operating the service for all Globallive customers on a goodwill basis whilst we sought to balance the ongoing cost model for the business against a fair and reasonable offer to the Globallive customers.

This offer is based upon the following realities:

  1. Many Globallive customers had signed upfront leasing agreements for three to 5-year terms, with Globallive Limited receiving the majority of the whole term monies up-front.
  2. Causeway is offering access to the Telematics software to Globallive customers for free for the remaining period of these leases and is only looking to recover a continuity fee payable for essential third party suppliers and services who must be paid monthly on an ongoing basis.
  3. Causeway is currently funding these monthly costs on a goodwill basis for the whole of the
    Globallive customer base.
  4. This is not sustainable. Consequently, Causeway is asking Globallive customers to meet these service costs by way of a monthly continuity fee.
  5. Without Causeway stepping-in in May, the Globallive service would have ceased and customers would have lost their investment in total. Additionally the customers would have had to continue discharging their leasing obligations for a system they no longer had access to and would have had to have dealt with the cost and disruption of investing in a new Telematics system at current market rates.

 

"We are committed to a long-term relationship with Globallive customers that protects their interests in terms of service and costs.

Contrary to many other providers in the telematics sector Causeway is making a considerable financial investment this year in order to establish a stable business and service for existing and future customers.

To this end we are introducing prudent and sustainable business practices to the supply of telematics solutions - our vision for the future is that the capital investment element of telematics solutions (the units in the vehicles) should be separated from the live service element of the solution so that customers are secure in the knowledge that they genuinely can ‘pay as they go’.

Historically telematics has been sold to customers on a lease basis which leaves the financial burden with the customer irrespective of whether the provider stays in business or not.

Encouragingly, the majority of the Globallive customers are supportive of Causeway’s role in recovering the Globallive services and have signed up for the continuity fee.

These customers have recognised that we have helped them avert a logistical nightmare.