Telematics Costs Decrease, While ROI Gets On A Roll Content Population
As telematics devices started to gain traction in 2007, the benefits centered primarily on asset tracking and route optimization. That made it difficult for many fleet operators to justify the cost of purchasing and installing the devices.
Ten years later, the situation has changed dramatically. According to an article published in November by Automotive Fleet, new telematics capabilities are generating valuable benefits for many functions across almost any organization that uses vehicles:
- Productivity - Add-on apps offered in the Geotab Marketplace (among other resources) continue to make field drivers more productive in handling daily routines.
- Safety - Devices now offer easy ways to measure and manage seatbelt use, speeding, harsh braking/cornering, and other actions that affect safety. Innovative “gamification” features allow employers to reward good behavior as well as discourage unsafe behavior.
- Compliance - Data collection capabilities simplify the administrative challenges associated with new federal mandates such as ELD. Devices used in a “connected” system can also automate tasks related to business/personal use reporting, IFTA, and HOS, among others.
- Maintenance - Devices can now read onboard vehicle computers to apply predictive analytics. These smart systems then provide alerts for recommended maintenance before dangerous or disruptive failures occur.
In addition, as telematics technology scales to wider adoption in the marketplace, pricing levels for devices and related services continue to fall. Analysts predict that all vehicles eventually will be connected via telematics, making customized “use case” bundles available for virtually every fleet vehicle on the road.
Source: www.automotive-fleet.com
Mary Jane Anderson, President and Owner