Even low mileage business drivers can benefit from telematics, according to Martin Otter, insurance development manager at Trimble.
He said: “If people are driving 4,000 miles a year does it mean telematics doesn’t work there? No it doesn’t. It just means we need to have a different approach.”
Self-installed technology is one approach that Trimble is looking at as it would reduce the expense and time of fitting telematics in a vehicle.
Otter also said that he was “fascinated by the opportunity to use emergent technology such as smartphones”.
He said that fleet managers could get “a massive amount of data” from smartphones to help them monitor, measure and modify driver behaviour.
He suggested that smartphones would be “a very cost effective way to make improvements in driver safety”.
“From my perspective I’m quite interested in putting a box in the vehicle but I understand all the issues around that,” he said. “If a driver has a smartphone with them anyway shouldn’t we use it to understand where they are, how they are driving, what they doing and help them to improve?”
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Sarah Tooze is a former managing editor of sister title Smart Transport. Prior to joining Smart Transport she worked on Fleet News for more than 10 years, latterly as deputy editor, and won the ‘automotive business journalist’ award in the 2017 Newspress Awards.
adamcrystalball - 28/07/2011 12:06
Mobile tracking clearly has a place in this industry. We've found our solution MobileTrack is seeing significant growth particularly for companies with gray fleets and pool vehicles where attaching our vehicle tracking devices isn't an ideal solution. Our customers are benefiting not only by improving journey efficiency and individual's driving behavior, but also having the information to reduce overtime costs and personal fuel usage. Its also preferred in instances where moving fixed vehicle tracking units from one vehicle to another is not practical. So you could say it truly is a mobile solution. Adam Crystal Ball Ltd