To be competitive, drive productivity, and make a real difference to the operational costs of your vehicle or fleet, telematics matter.
Useful Information:
- What is telematics?
- 5 ways vehicle telematics reduce vehicle costs
- Industries that benefit from vehicle telematics
- Why do you need telematics?
- Telematics case studies
What is Telematics?
Telematics is the technology that measures and records data from a vehicle (or fleet of vehicles) via a telematics box. Telematics data includes a broad range of specifics from GPS vehicle tracking (i.e. where the vehicle went and when) to things like speed, mileage, and even driver behaviour. This information is then sent via GPS, mobile technology and cloud-based solutions to a telematics software program that allows users to easily interpret the telematics data.
Increasingly, the data generated from telematics vehicle tracking systems is being used in telematics insurance, enabling you to drive down costs on your insurance premiums.
5 Ways Vehicle Telematics Reduce Fleet Costs
Vehicle telematics, especially when used as part of a wider fleet management platform, can significantly reduce fleet costs in a number of different ways:
1. Telematics Insurance:
By employing a telematics box or a vehicle telematics device, you can cut costs on your insurance premiums. Insurance companies are consistently looking to telematics to provide customers with a more accurate insurance cost based on real driver behaviour.
2. Fuel Costs:
Possibly the biggest savings area, and easily quantifiable, fleet telematics can reduce your fuel bill. Not only can features such as geofences reduce overall mileage by ensuring route optimisation, telematics can also help save on fuel by reducing misspent idling time, reducing speeding, preventing unauthorised usage, as well as matching fuel records to fuel used.
3. Maintenance Costs:
With fleet based businesses, maintenance costs can hit hard, especially when they are unexpected. Telematics vehicle tracking allows for online maintenance planning and scheduling as well as enabling you to set reminders for basics such as oil changes. In addition, fleet telematics allow you to utilise on-board diagnostics more advantageously, as well as analyse service reports.
4. Driver Safety:
Whilst more difficult to quantify, there are many cost benefits to be made from improving driver safety through vehicle telematics. By utilising telematics data to coach and improve driving behaviour you can maximise your personnel’s driving abilities without compromising their safety.
5. Increased Productivity:
In short, vehicle telematics assists in improving productivity by enabling workforces to complete more work (whether they be deliveries, or jobs in less time). Through telematics technology such as geofencing businesses are able to become more efficient and maximise the return on fleet investment by increasing work load.
Which Industries Benefit From Vehicle Telematics?
The short answer to this is: any fleet-based business. If you rely on your fleet, whether it is 5 cars, or 500 trucks, then your business will benefit from telematics fleet tracking and vehicle telematics systems. Telematics insurance alone will help any fleet business within any industry cut costs. Examples of Australian industries benefiting from fleet telematics include:
Distribution:
Being responsible for the accurate and timely dispatch, with minimal margin for error, distribution firms benefit from vehicle and truck GPS telematics by improving accuracy, optimising route planning, making deliveries faster and being able to give customers accurate dispatch times.
Construction & Heavy Plant:
With these industries being so large in Australia, if you’re looking to lower premiums by using telematics insurance, then you need to get on board. But telematics offer more than a straight reduction on your premiums. They also allow you to improve the security, fuel economy, productivity and maintenance scheduling of your fleet.
Field-Based Services:
Vehicle telematics devices allow for field-based fleet businesses to respond to real time GPS data making operations more efficient, as well as reducing time spent on route planning. Telematics geofencing also comes in to play here, enabling businesses to set geographical parameters on field operations giving fleet managers greater control over their drivers.
Transportation:
With miles and miles of Australian ground to cover, truck telematics makes substantial savings across transportation fleets by reducing fuel costs, monitoring driver behaviour and aiding with efficient navigation.
Food & Drink and Other Supply Chain Businesses:
Chains are only as strong as their weakest link. To ensure a seamless supply chain, vehicle telematics systems can be brought on board to safeguard business reputation. Additionally, vehicle telematics devices can be extremely beneficial in the delivery of perishable goods such as food with the added functionality of being able to track and assist drivers on the best routes to avoid unwanted traffic delays.
Government & Public Safety:
In Australia, a vast number of Government and Public Agencies rely heavily on their fleet. When responsible for wise spending of the Australian tax dollar, telematics vehicle tracking can save time and money on pressurised resources.
Utilities, Oil & Gas:
Telematics systems can aid with routing, navigation and workload prioritisation as well as driver safety, which is a major concern within these industries.
Why Do Businesses Need Vehicle Telematics?
With the huge money saving benefits deriving from vehicle telematics systems they are considered a vital component of any fleet operated business.
Case Studies of Fleet Telematics Australia
Listed below are examples where vehicle telematics systems have made a real quantifiable difference:
Fuel Costs Cut by $170,590 Per Year, Reduce Insurance Premiums by 42%
EDGE Oilfield Services, a company providing high-pressure rental equipment for companies that create oil wells, operates a large fleet of 233 vehicles and needed a solution that would ensure driver safety and improve furl usage. Following the implementation of a vehicle telematics system, speeding events were eliminated with the average speed of the driver reducing by 4 mph. As a direct result of employing the telematics system fuel efficiency was drastically improved leading to a saving of approx. $170,590 annually as well as saving 573 gallons of fuel per month. In addition, the improved driver safety and reduced speeding events equated to a 42% reduction in insurance premiums.
Vehicle Idling Reduced by 13% and Savings of $27,346
Horizon Services, a premium plumbing, air conditioning, heating, water and sewer service company, operate a fleet of 143 vehicles and employed telematics with the aim of improving fleet efficiency by gaining a real-time view of their drivers. After implementing a telematics vehicle tracking system Horizon Services experienced a 13% reduction in vehicle idling which equated to annual savings of approx. $27,346. Additionally, driver speeding was reduced which lead to a further annual saving of approx. $19,158 and with the increased efficiency, Horizon Services had the capacity to complete one extra job per vehicle each week which equated to a potential extra $69,285 of revenue annually.
Savings of $95 Per Vehicle Per Month
Sea Breeze, a drinks distributor, operates in population-dense areas with a fleet size of approx. 22 vehicles. They employed telematics fleet tracking and reported saving $95 per vehicle per month. Sea Breeze put this down to the telematics enabling them to decrease driver speeding and reducing waste mileage, thanks to the telematics. They also reported increased operating efficiency, and have had 60% fewer speeding incidents than the industry average.
Cost Savings Through Proactive Scheduling of Vehicle Maintenance
Vista 4WD Hire, an Australian company, have a fleet of approximately 100 vehicles offering short and medium term 4WD rentals to customers in Queensland and NSW. According to Vista 4WD Hire the telematics system is vital to their business as it provides a fully featured In Vehicle Monitoring System (IVMS) that is compliant with customer requirements. The telematics fleet tracking system has also proved to be extremely beneficial in the proactive scheduling of vehicle maintenance as well as investigating road accidents and incidents. The vehicle telematics system has enabled them to integrate driver behaviour, vehicle condition and GPS data in to one overall operational plan that is helping them to save money by maintaining vehicle health and eliminating any unnecessary expenditure on false accident claims.