As forward-thinking managers, you have your eye on the future and where the business is going. Are you also taking note of who will be working alongside you on that path into the future? People are the engine of the organization, so it’s worthwhile to take some time to consider leadership development among your management tasks.
So you’re working with data to measure and optimize your fleet program. Have you also added data cleaning to your routine? Here is a quick overview to get you started.
The team recently attended GEOTAB CONNECT 2018 in Toronto, Ontario from June 11-13. We were extremely excited to meet and collaborate with fellow Marketplace partners, who are industry leaders in their respective fields. We were also anxiously awaiting new developments and innovations in the fleet management industry.
As a fleet telematics company that promotes safety and compliance for all of our customers, Geotab helps companies identify aggressive driving and correct the risky behavior, allowing them to increase the safety of their employees while reducing cost and risk within the company. By tracking parameters such as speeding, harsh cornering, and harsh acceleration — to name but a few — fleet managers can begin to detect some of the behaviors that can lead to safety and compliance issues. With this information, managers can provide coaching and feedback to those specific drivers.
Telematics makes for a great business tool by being able to identify single safety events, such as a driver speeding or not wearing a seat belt. All this helps fleets to train and work with drivers on reducing safety risks. But telematics can bring even more to the table by helping unfold a larger view on fleet safety.
Keeping drivers on board is necessary to stop the churn of solid, reliable drivers moving from one fleet to another – or even worse, leaving the industry all together. When looking at truck driver retention strategies, fleets should consider telematics.
Why do accidents occur? Reckless driving? Unforeseen circumstances? Unfamiliar territory? Whatever the reason, the open road reflects life by placing us in situations where we are forced to act and react in particular ways. Our past experiences and upbringing not only shape our worldview, perceptions, biases, and emotional tendencies, but ultimately, our driving habits as well. This is the psychology of driving.
When it comes to fuel spending, there are several things that can be done to help cut your fuel costs and save money. The main two areas that it comes down to is either improving the fuel economy of already existing vehicles or acquiring new vehicles with better mpg. While upgrading a whole fleet isn’t always possible, it is important to consider fuel with every new vehicle purchase cycle.
Your driver, Tim, hops into the company vehicle at 8:30 am and ends his shift at 4:30 pm. During his shift, the vehicle generated data raging from ignition, seatbelt usage, speedometer, gear change, brake, fuel level, fuel fill up, engine warnings, location, vehicle diagnostics, RPM, accident log & other rich & accurate vehicle data. Now multiply that by over a million vehicles driving across the globe, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, that’s a lot of information! GEOTAB collects about 1 billion records a day, this allows Geotab to derive knowledge and insight for clients and the telematics industry.
When considering a technology investment for your business, it’s important to analyze the potential benefits of the project. Two types of benefits should be considered in the decision-making process: tangible and intangible benefits. In this article, we provide some information to help you make the right technology decision.
In just over 15 years, Geotab Inc. has grown from a small, family business to a global leader in solutions for fleet management and vehicle tracking. Now, the company has hit another milestone. Geotab has reached one million subscribers worldwide.
Diagnostic or nondiagnostic GPS tracking. Which one is better? You may have heard about the benefits of each. This post sets the record straight on why you need true engine diagnostics.
In order to increase our security levels, the Geotab servers have been moved to Canada (MYGEOTAB.COM). Geotab takes a rigorous approach to data security by following the principle of continuous improvement. To protect our customers and partners, Geotab is constantly reviewing, improving and validating our security mechanisms and processes so our systems remain resilient to intrusion and disaster. Geotab collaborates with leading stakeholders to advance security across the industry. As we grow, more industries, fleets and customers will benefit from Geotab’s uncompromising stance on data security.
IOX – Input / output expanders plugs directly into the GO device and are used to extend the GO device to such an extent in which Geotab helps find solutions for you to grow your fleet as the fleet grows.
GO TALK is a driver awareness tool that transforms the way driver coaching happens behind the wheel by providing real-time verbal feedback to the driver, increasing safety and minimizing risk.
GEOFENCING is the act of creating and defining virtual geographic areas that trigger a specific action when a GPS fleet tracking device is within, enters, or exits the geographic zone.
The power of spreadsheets cannot be overstated. Even with the growing number of new business tools and apps available, Microsoft Excel sheets remain an indispensable tool for day-to-day operations. The use of Excel is widespread in the workplace and will continue to be, at least for the near future. This post provides some quick Excel tips and basic formulas and functions to help you save time.
Concern over the cybersecurity of connected cars has been dominating the news. As everything around us becomes more connected, it’s only natural to ask questions about security. This extends to the connected devices and gear in our cars and trucks. How do you know your gps tracker is safe?
Canadian Business and PROFIT ranked Geotab No. 212 on the 29th annual PROFIT 500, the definitive ranking of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies. Published in the October issue of Maclean’s magazine and at CanadianBusiness.com, the PROFIT 500 ranks Canadian businesses by their five-year revenue growth.
Geotab made the 2017 PROFIT 500 list with five-year revenue growth of 302%.
“It is never easy to earn a spot on the PROFIT 500, but this year’s applicant pool was the most competitive yet,” says Deborah Aarts, PROFIT 500 program manager. “This year’s winners demonstrate the resilience, innovation and sheer management smarts it takes to build a thriving business today. Canada—and the world—needs more entrepreneurial success stories like these.”
“Geotab is honoured to be on the PROFIT 500 ranking,” says Neil Cawse, CEO, Geotab. “This achievement reflects the strength of our technology, our commitment to innovation and the continued dedication of our team.”
Geotab’s smart transportation solutions help businesses of all sizes, including many Fortune 500 companies, improve driver and vehicle productivity, safety, fuel consumption, and regulatory compliance. Today, Geotab leads the industry in processing nearly 2 billion data points daily. Geotab’s solutions are currently used in more than 750,000 vehicles worldwide with approximately 20,000 new users added each month.
For 29 years, the PROFIT 500 has been Canada’s most respectable and influential ranking of entrepreneurial achievement. Developed by PROFIT and now published in Maclean’s magazine and at CanadianBusiness.com, the PROFIT 500 ranks Canadian companies on five-year revenue growth. For more information on the ranking visit PROFIT500.com or CanadianBusiness.com.
Founded in 1928, Canadian Business is the longest-serving and most-trusted business publication in the country. It is the country’s premier media brand for executives and senior business leaders. It fuels the success of Canada’s business elite with a focus on the things that matter most: leadership, innovation, business strategy and management tactics. Learn more at CanadianBusiness.com.
Today’s fleet managers are continuously looking for ways to manage their fleet’s total cost of ownership, minimize their operating expenses, and increase profitability. However, identifying new opportunities for reducing costs can be difficult.
TELEMATICS is a method of monitoring an asset (car, truck, heavy equipment, or even ship) by using GPS and onboard diagnostics to record movements on a computerized map. Learn the answer to “What is telematics?” and read how it’s used in this blog post.
What Is Telematics? Technical Overview
Imagine a highly intelligent computer in your vehicle that is able to report on nearly every detail — from speed and idling, to fuel use, low tire pressure, and more. This information can mean saving on maintenance costs by better monitoring vehicles or improving fuel efficiency by learning more about driving habits. All of this describes the universe of telematics, also known as GPS fleet tracking.
To track assets, information from the vehicle is recorded via a small, telematics device — also called a black box — that plugs into the OBD II or CAN-BUS port. A SIM card and modem in the device enables communication on the cellular network.
There are several key components of a telematics device:
In addition to the hardware, the algorithm used for GPS logging is another critical factor because it impacts the quality and accuracy of the data. Read more about curve logging here.
See Also: Telematics Glossary: 60+ Terms to Know
How Telematics Works
Data collected by the telematics device, like the GPS position and speed of the vehicle, and the g-force measured by the built-in accelerometer, are sent in a packaged format to a data center. The data then gets decoded.
A vast amount of data can be collected via the telematics device and other connected hardware or sensors, such as position, speed, trip distance/time, idling, harsh braking and driving, seat belt, fuel consumption, vehicle faults, battery voltage, and other engine data.
In the case of Geotab, this information is stored in the cloud and brought into a fleet management software system, accessible from a desktop computer or a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet. Using the software, users are able to view and export reports and gain business intelligence such as the top 10 drivers with the highest number of speeding incidents or vehicles that are due for scheduled maintenance.
Telematics data is sent from the vehicle to a fleet management software portal.
Open Platform Telematics
As technology has evolved, telematics has moved from a closed system to open platform. An open platform telematics system is capable of integrating with other types of hardware accessories, software, and mobile apps to provide added insight into business operations.
The variety of applications for telematics includes integrations with dispatching and mobile forms, to driver cameras, salt and sand spreader trackers, weather alerts, and electronic logging (ELDs) for recording Hours of Service in trucking. See the infographic below for an overview of how businesses use telematics.
Click to view image larger.
The growing number of use applications has led to the increased adoption of commercial telematics as reported by Market Research Reports Search Engine, which values the global commercial telematics market at over $14 billion (2016).
The Origins of Telematics
The term “telematics” comes from a blend of telecommunication and informatics sciences. These two sciences formally merged back in the 1960s, when the U.S. Department of Defense developed GPS systems to track U.S. asset movements and improve communication on the battlefield. Telematics consists of three interdependent breakthroughs of modern technology from this research and development: Internet, GPS, and machine-to-machine communication (M2M).
Combining telecommunications and information processing, telematics was later used to refer to automation in vehicles. Wireless safety communications, GPS navigation, integrated hands-free cell phones, and automatic driving assistance systems are all components covered by vehicle telematics.
The Benefits of Telematics
Any type of small business to large corporation, nonprofit organization and government agency operating vehicles or other assets can benefit from telematics.
Industries using telematics and fleet tracking technology (sample list):
Learn more about these specific applications for telematics on our fleet management solutions page.
Telematics in Fleet Management
Telematics has become a crucial technology for fleet management. Telematics supports these five core areas:
Insurance telematics is also gaining in popularity, in which the safety data is shared with a fleet’s insurance company with the goal of lowering premiums, if they can prove safe driving habits. Essentially, telematics can help insurance companies better pinpoint levels of risk. (While not all insurance agencies are offering this telematics-based insurance, it’s worth discussing with your provider if you’re not self-insured.)
Also gaining in popularity is the ability to increase vehicle security by integrating identification sensors into vehicles. This allows fleets to authenticate a driver’s identity before they can start the vehicle.
The Future of Telematics and Fleet Tracking
The future of telematics is likely to achieve the unimaginable. Whether driving your personal vehicle or managing a fleet, constant communication with nearby vehicles is already achievable through telematics.
Exciting areas of innovation related to telematics include:
GPS tracking systems will continue to become better integrated with other operational systems and will continue to improve while M2M technology expands. The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), making technology possible for smart homes and smart communities, are great examples of the rapid evolution happening in this space.
Author: Craig Michael, RMA Production Assistant – Geotab Inc
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