By no means all fleet operators worldwide need an all-embracing telematics system that does everything but make the coffee. All many of them really require is the ability to track the whereabouts of their vehicles in real-time and learn something about the behaviour of their drivers on public roads.

Too complex?

Now active in Spain through distributor Disvent Ingenieros, and with plans to move into France, Australia, South Africa, and the USA, UK-based Lightfoot is targeting what it has to offer at precisely that sector of the market says managing director, Mark Roberts.

‘We’re coming at it from a slightly different angle I believe, because we’re not primarily a telematics business,’ he says. ‘We’re actually an automotive engineering company whose other activities include the production of hybrid vehicles.’

Helping drivers

The Lightfoot package consists of an in-cab display, which shows green, amber or red depending on the driving style adopted by whoever is behind the wheel. If they accelerate too harshly, for example, a red light will show and a voice will tell them to improve their driving style.

Do it again, and the same thing will happen. Do it for a third time and it will be recorded as a violation in a weekly email sent to the fleet manager.

Lightfoot can combine what it has to offer with tracking if required.

‘The point is that the system is on the side of the drivers and gives them a chance,’ says Roberts. Not recording their first two examples of poor driving gives them the opportunity to mend their ways without the uncomfortable feeling that they are being spied on by the boss.

So what sort of fuel savings can be achieved? ‘Anywhere from 9% to 20% plus, but the average is around 12%,’ he replies.

Such a simple, no-nonsense package – ‘less is more,’ quips Roberts – could appeal to some of the near-600 European commercial vehicle fleets recently quizzed by researchers on behalf of Goodyear.

Surprisingly, 27% of them revealed that they made no use whatsoever of telematics while 16% said they only made minimal use. That is despite the fact that the benefits that can be gained from telematics range from the ability to monitor on-board systems remotely, such as refrigeration equipment if a vehicle is carrying temperature-controlled loads, and take action if there is a problem, to ‘geofencing’; receiving an instant alert if a vehicle and its cargo are moved without authorisation.

Fleet utilisation data

If some of those who have avoided adopting it despite its potential benefits are doing so because they have taken fright at its perceived cost and complications then a simplified system might persuade them to put a tentative toe in the water.

Before they do so, however, they may be tempted to explore an alternative that will give them a significant slice of the information they require without the need to sign up to a potentially-costly contract. It is being offered by Bishop Fleet Optimisation and is based on a GPS-based data logger that is locked into the vehicle’s lighter socket.

It is left there for five weeks, then removed. The data it holds is downloaded to a PC and the files are then downloaded from there to a server based in New Zealand.

A Bishop Fleet Optimisation software package is used to analyse it, the aim being to see if the vehicle is being utilised efficiently or if it might be surplus to requirements. By using this approach an Australian health authority was able to cut the size of its fleet by an initial 23% with no loss of efficiency, says the company.

The data can also help you determine if your depots are in the wrong place.

Customers are given secure access to the data and can generate their own reports. The variety of reports that can be produced has been deliberately limited, however, says managing director, Derrick Bishop, because in his experience fleets only use a small number from the many possibilities that are typically offered.

Too much data

‘One of the faults GPS companies have globally is that they keep producing large wads of tables,’ he remarks. ‘The data that exists in the traditional fleet market is rich, but largely ignored,’ comments Alan Cottrill, commercial director at Trak Global, which is active in the UK, Dubai, and Kenya and is planning to launch its services in Saudi Arabia and Spain.

Not all telematics businesses try to lock fleets into lengthy contracts or attempt to provide them with services and data that they do not really need, contends Claire Alleaume, marketing manager at Quartix, which had just announced plans to float on London’s AIM market at the time of writing.

Financing

‘We offer a tier of different packages and we don’t try and push customers to take the top package if the most basic one is better suited to them,’ she says. ‘Furthermore, we offer short-term 12-month contracts on a direct rental basis so no third-party finance is involved.’

The risk of using third-party finance can be that operators may still be saddled with the repayments even if their selected telematics provider has gone out of business.

Quartix’s markets include France and the USA. ‘We went into the US early in 2014, we’ve got an office in Chicago and we're running a nationwide service,’ Alleaume says.

Vehicle or driver tracking?

A criticism of some telematics specialists is that they tend to concentrate on tracking vehicles rather than the people who drive them; a drawback from the viewpoint of a fleet whose vans may be driven by several different people during the course of a working day.

That was something Fleetmatics took into account when it launched a new system platform along with three new products, all of which are available as Software as a Service web-based technologies: Fleetmatics REVEAL, Fleetmatics REVEAL+ and Fleetmatics WORK REVEAL.

A GPS tracking system, REVEAL includes apps for Android and iPhone devices, REVEAL+ is designed for major fleets with complex requirements while WORK can be used to manage mobile workers.

‘One thing we can do once a driver fobs into a vehicle is follow him through the entire fleet,’ says European sales director, Derek Bryan. ‘If the individual's driving style is such that he burns way too much fuel no matter what he drives then this can be highlighted.’

Fleetmatics is active in the USA, Canada, Australia, Mexico, the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK.

Drivers with poor fuel consumption figures, thanks to continued speeding, are likely to be at greater risk of having an accident than those who drive more frugally. However collisions do not solely occur as a consequence of careless behaviour by the fleet driver involved.

It may be the fault of another driver, or a staged accident. In other words, somebody may have deliberately pulled out in front of one of your vehicles – sign-written vans are especially vulnerable – with the aim of claiming it was your driver’s fault and fraudulently claiming compensation.

Video data

One way of mounting a defence against such a claim – or to deter criminals from perpetrating such a fraud to begin with – is to equip each vehicle with a camera capable of recording exactly what happened. South Africa-based MiX Telematics has one available under the MiX Vision banner and was promoting its advantages at the recent IAA Hanover Commercial Vehicle Show in Germany.

The package is in fact made up of two cameras; one covers the driver and one covers the road. Videos of both are triggered when an event occurs and automatically uploaded so that the fleet manager can see what has happened alongside trip information on a map or timeline.

Best known for its driver behaviour monitoring system, MiX Telematics recently saw its contract with Rio Tinto Services in Australia extended. By June 2015 it will embrace over 3,300 of the mining group’s assets.

Even if a camera is not fitted, the presence of a tracking device can help refute a fraudulent insurance claim says Alan Cottrill, commercial director of Trak Global.

‘It can provide evidence that can prove that the fleet’s vehicle was not involved,’ he points out.

If the fraudster claims that a company van dented the side of his car and is demanding compensation, then tracking data may show that the van was on the other side of town when the alleged incident occurred; and the claim will usually evaporate.

Tracking systems can alas be jammed: not something any fleet wants to have happen, especially if its vehicles are carrying valuable goods. ‘With jamming becoming a reality we are now able to offer customers the option of installing a non-GSM anti-jamming module with their tracking system to ensure continuous visibility, thereby helping to combat vehicle theft,’ says Nick Vlok, chief executive officer of South Africa’s DigiCore, supplier of Ctrack.

Insurance and telematics

A number of insurers and telematics providers worldwide have got together, with the former offering various types of incentive to operators to fit the latter’s products in the expectation that monitoring will cause claims levels to fall. That is not the only way in which insurance can be integrated with telematics packages, however.

Returning to South Africa, DigiCore has come up with an insurance product called Ctrack Fleet Protector in conjunction with Loyalty Life, International SOS and Holland to cover the country’s fleet drivers if they are involved in an accident. It offers a variety of benefits include access to a 24-hour emergency call centre, roadside assistance and some cover for medical expenses.

The number of fleets highlighted in the Goodyear report referred to earlier that make either zero or minimal use of telematics indicates that there is still room for it to expand even in developed markets.

Some providers are attempting to grow by teaming up with vehicle manufacturers.

OEM partnerships

In the USA for example, Telogis has recently signed a deal with Mack Trucks that will involve providing the latter’s customers with navigation and fleet management packages that can be accessed by using a tablet or a smartphone. The Telogis platform can receive and analyse data from each Mack, including driver and vehicle performance history, and turn it into actionable data.

Similar US deals have been struck with Mack’s sister company Volvo Trucks, as well as Ford and Isuzu Commercial Truck of America. Realising that such an arrangement could help it expand in a developing market, Microlise has signed a five-year deal with Tata Motors to provide telematics services to fleet customers in India.

TomTom has forged especially close links with car manufacturers. Last May along with AutoNavi, it announced a partnership with Audi in China, which involves installing its real-time traffic information system in the German manufacturer’s cars, initially in the A3. It cannot come a moment too soon given that the first edition of TomTom’s China Traffic Index published last July reveals that the country’s drivers are spending an average of nine working days a year stuck in traffic.

Going one stage further, October’s Paris Motor Show saw TomTom sign a memorandum of understanding with Volkswagen Group Research that will involve the joint development of HAD (Highly Automated Driving) systems.

Consolidation

Perhaps it is the continued potential for growth and the need for a presence in all key markets in order to take advantage of it that has prompted several mergers and takeovers among telematics companies and related businesses over the past 18 months to two years or so.

FleetCor Technologies and Summit Partners have joined forces in order to acquire Masternaut; Italy’s Viasat and the UK’s Enigma Telematics have merged; TomTom has taken over DAMS Tracking in France while Fleetmatics has acquired Italy’s KKT. KKT has developed Routist, a route optimisation package designed to help fleets that have to make large numbers of deliveries daily use their available resources to maximum advantage.

Lysanda has acquired Tracker and set up Tantalum Corporation. It has an annual revenue of approximately €25m and some 500,000 telematics installations throughout Europe.

Businesses without an existing telematics presence may be moving into the sector because they too recognise its growth prospects. Navman Wireless for example has been bought by Danaher Corporation which has interests in everything from microscopes to dental diagnostics and disinfection technologies that help ensure safe drinking water.

All businesses wherever in the world they may be have a duty of care to their employees. That is a duty a tracking device can help them to fulfil, says Cottrill.

‘It can help make their employees safer and better drivers,’ he points out. And if things do go wrong and there is an accident, then the employer will be alerted quickly and will be able to ensure the driver is safe.

‘The employer can call the driver to see if they, or anyone else involved, requires emergency assistance,’ he says. ‘Furthermore, the circumstances of the accident can be immediately captured; and that can provide protection against inflated insurance claims.’