The agreement will initially focus on the markets of Spain, Germany and the UK with the intention to explore Latin American markets in the near future.

The partnership plays a key role in Geotab’s plans for global expansion – CEO Neil Cawse has said that the company will supply 80% of the underlying technology for the telematics market in the next five years without any mergers or acquisitions.  

The solution, which includes Geotab’s plug-and-play device, offers real time fleet management and the ability to develop a number of alerts, notifications, and review driver trip and activity reports.

Advanced features also include on-board diagnostics through engine indicators to return feedback, such as engine failures, or an in-depth engine fault code diagnosis; detect accidents and retrace cause of the accident; and allow add-ons such as a navigational device, NFC driver ID key, sensors and more.

The technology will help businesses improve their on-road productivity, on-road safety, and ecological efficiency, in addition to optimising fleet performance to reduce fuel costs. Fleet managers will gain more intelligence across multiple vehicles giving them the data and insights needed to make more informed business decisions in real-time. Furthermore, drivers will have more insight over their individual vehicles.

The deal is intended to complement Telefónica’s telematics portfolio and enable the firm to extend its fleet management offer to further cover the global needs for its clients of both large corporations and small and medium size companies.

Surya Mendonça, the m2m managing director at Telefonica, said: ‘We’re delighted to partner with Geotab, who through continuous innovation have many of the world’s largest fleets already using their product. This agreement allows Telefónica to provide a best-in-class “plug and play” fleet telematics product in Europe that reinforces our portfolio and gives our m2mcustomers further access to the strongest solutions.’

Geotab devices have been deployed in over 400,000 vehicles and currently support 40% of the top ten fleets in North America.

Neil Cawse, CEO of Geotab, said: ‘We are seeing tremendous growth for fleet management solutions worldwide and the wireless carriers are now becoming an integral component of the fleet telematics and connected machine ecosystem. We are impressed by the Telefonica m2mteam and look forward to working together with Telefonica to deliver the most advanced fleet telematics solution in the market.’