Stay-at-home orders due to outbreak means essential fleet vehicles can take advantage of quieter road network.

The enforced lockdown across the United States due to the Corona Virus outbreak has meant an increase in travel efficiency for essential commercial vehicles across its cities' road networks.

Fleet Service Management

Data processed from Fleet Service Management firm Geotab and their connected vehicles operating across seven major US cities shows an increase in average commercial speeds and a reduction in time spent waiting at intersections.

Compared to averages from February 22 to March 15 the data shows that across all seven cities there has been an average road speed increase of 16 per cent with New York City, the state with the worse outbreak, seeing the highest increase of 2o per cent.

Stopping times at intersections has reduced signigificantly with Atlanta having the largest reduction of approximately 17 per cent compared to the February 22 to March 15 period.

It all equates to less traffic on the road meaning residents are adhering to Government orders to stay at home during the breakout. Vehicles tasked with carrying out essential services, such as food deliveries to supermarkets, are able to reach their destinations quicker than usual in weekday traffic figures that resemble that of the weekend.

Mike Branch, VP of Data and Analytics at Geotab expanded on the analysis. "Examining connected car datasets at the city level helps provide some clarity and understanding about what is happening in our communities during unprecedented times such as this," he said.

"We have seen a noticeable decrease in traffic congestion based on average speeds and time spent at intersections. This means that with less traffic on the roads, commercial vehicles are able to get through typically congested major cities in a more efficient way, allowing essential drivers to get where they are going quicker."

 

Integration provides fleet operators with engine filter performance data in real time from within the Geotab platform...

Geotab, a global leader in IoT and connected transportation, and Donaldson, a global leader in the filtration industry, recently announced a new integration that will enable Geotab customer’s to utilize Donaldson’s wireless Filter Minder® monitoring system. A first-of-its-kind remote, wireless filter-monitoring system for trucks and heavy-duty equipment, Filter Minder provides real time engine filter performance data to help fleet operators optimize vehicle maintenance and improve productivity.
Wirelessly monitoring the condition of truck engine air filters, Filter Minder provides customers with visibility into the remaining life of engine air filters, plus additional performance data. Seamlessly integrating with the Geotab platform, which is utilized by more than 500,000 class 6, 7 and 8 trucks across North America, the Donaldson Filter Minder system works in tandem with a fleet’s telematics solution to help businesses save money through optimized filtration maintenance.
“With the cost of fleet ownership continually rising, we intentionally set out to offer a simple solution for fleet managers with visionary companies like Geotab to help optimize fleets,” said Nate Zambon, Director of the Donaldson Filter Minder product line. “By integrating our Filter Minder solution into the Geotab platform, fleets can now receive Donaldson’s comprehensive filter analytics along with the most advanced telematics data—from their laptop or mobile device—to help lower overall cost of ownership and improve individual vehicle or fleetwide maintenance processes and performance.”
Recently introduced, the Donaldson Filter Minder system utilizes a vehicle’s telematics system to send filter performance data to the cloud through wireless sensors and receivers and provides predictive analytics that inform fleet managers when filters are approaching the end of their optimal life.
“As a global company committed to optimizing fleet management at every level, Geotab is proud to join forces with a dynamic collaborator that shares our vision for a truly connected fleet,” says Scott Sutarik, VP Commercial Vehicle Solutions at Geotab. “Integration with Donaldson will enable Geotab to continue its mission to equip its customers with the most advanced telematics solutions, while helping us innovate for a cleaner future.”

 

 

Allison Connected Services now available as an Add-In on the Geotab Marketplace.

Geotab has announced its integration with Allison Transmission, the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial-duty automatic transmissions and a leader in electric hybrid propulsion systems. Now available on the Geotab Marketplace, Allison Connected Services provides fleet operators with real-time data and prognostics to support fourth and fifth-generation Allison transmissions.

Delivering critical transmission health information and prognosis, Allison Connected Services helps to extend the performance and safety of medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles. Seamlessly integrating with Geotab’s award-winning platform, Allison Connected Services offers insights on diagnostic and maintenance information such as oil and filter life, clutch health and transmission information. Going one step further, drivers will receive recommendations from Allison Transmission on the appropriate next steps to address maintenance requirements, including guidance to the nearest Allison dealer to have maintenance items addressed quickly and efficiently.

“We are proud to launch our partnership with Geotab as part of an ongoing journey to provide fleets with actionable information to support their fourth and fifth-generation Allison transmissions back to model year 2006,” said Branden Harbin, Allison Transmission Managing Director, Global Marketing. “With a shared commitment to powering the global connected vehicle ecosystem by giving customers the insights they need to manage their fleets, we are able to better equip our customers with tools that ultimately help lead to increased productivity, safety and performance in the trucking industry and beyond.”

Allison Connected Services currently supports 1000 Series™, 2000 Series™, 3000 Series™, 4000 Series™ and H40/50 EP™ utilizing 4th Generation Controls software from 2009 through 2017 and currently available Allison 5th Generation Controls software.

“As a leading OEM, integration with Allison allows Geotab to provide a more comprehensive offering to medium- and heavy-duty commercial fleets through a world-class partner,” says Scott Sutarik, Geotab’s VP, Commercial Vehicle Solutions. “With a solution that eliminates the need for separate apps and web pages when viewing Allison data, together we are delivering the kind of trusted, best-in-class fleet management products and services our customers have come to expect.”

As location-based technology and work scheduling tools merge into a neat mobility package, what role does telematics play in fleet management? Mark Glover asks if the technology has lost its way or does it have the future mapped out?

Geotab Integrated Solution for Ford Vehicles offers fleet managers the ability to incorporate Ford vehicle data into the MyGeotab platform for single view of entire fleet.

Encore and Workforce Manager help to maximize mobile workforces’ potential.

Geotab have announced the availability of two new mobile workforce management solutions by Actsoft, Inc. on the Geotab Marketplace.

Helping business to streamline processes and gain greater visibility into drivers and assets, Encore and Workforce Manager by Actsoft, are the latest solutions to join the Marketplace’s growing portfolio of mobile apps, software Add-Ins and hardware Add-Ons that enable Geotab customers to better manage their fleets.

Encore, Actsoft’s flagship product, enables companies to maximize efficiency in daily operations, providing businesses with the dynamic tools necessary to effectively oversee and engage remote employees and assets when in the field. Offering a wide range of functionality, such as mobile timekeeping, wireless forms and GPS-based tracking, Encore helps to streamline current processes, allowing fleet managers to benefit from more accurate workforce data and minimize discrepancies. Workforce Manager is a nearly identical software, but is exclusive to AT&T customers.

“We’re very excited to embark on this new journey in collaboration with Geotab,” said Kevin Thigpen, Chief Operating Officer at Actsoft. “The Geotab Marketplace, with its vast hub of telematics innovations, is the perfect home for Actsoft and its increasing portfolio of GPS-enabled workforce management solutions.”

As an industry leader in mobile resource management, Actsoft has been providing solutions to help businesses achieve their maximum potential for over 20 years. It’s award-winning suite of software tools for improved worker and asset management, is utilized by thousands of customers around the globe to power data-driven decision making. Joining over 150 partner solutions on the Geotab Marketplace, Actsoft’s Encore and Workforce Manager solutions are available to the more than 40,000 Geotab customers who are leveraging telematics data to better manage their fleets.

“The Geotab Marketplace is designed to help businesses customize their telematics solution and utilize vehicle data to increase the overall efficiency of their fleets, ” added Joey Marlow, Executive Vice President, U.S. Operations at Geotab. “The perfect complement to our Marketplace, Actsoft and its solutions provide customers with an all-encompassing workforce management solution that further strengthens any fleet-based operation, helping businesses become more productive today and into the future.” 

Transaction will provide government and private fleets a broadened selection of services for maximizing productivity, efficiency and safety, firm says.

Geotab has announced that it has signed an arrangement agreement whereby it plans to acquire BSM Technologies.

BSM provides telematics and asset management solutions to more than 165,000 vehicles across government and private fleets in Canada and the United States. The completion of this transaction would add to the over 1.5 million fleet telematics subscribers utilizing Geotab globally.

Over the past 20 years, BSM has developed extensive experience and customer relationships in the government sector, enabling municipalities and States/Provinces to optimize and manage their winter road maintenance fleets.

”BSM had previously standardized on using the Geotab platform as their base and then created a competitive advantage by building new products on top of our technology,” said Neil Cawse, Geotab CEO. “An example of this is winter ops - support for data and the management of snow plows and spreaders. This technology is key for our resellers to be able to win government business.”

By adopting the Geotab platform, BSM’s customers in government as well as other verticals including construction, service and rail, will not only benefit from Geotab’s leading engineering expertise and award-winning focus on security, scalability and reliability but will also gain access to solutions for enhanced visibility into vehicle performance, driver habits, accident detection and more.

Geotab’s leadership is reflected in major account wins including the awarding of the world’s largest single-source telematics contract in history by GSA Fleet, a division of the GSA (General Services Administration), to equip its 217,000 U.S. government vehicles with Geotab technology.

Placing security at the forefront of its innovations, Geotab announced earlier this year that the cryptographic module in the company’s GO vehicle tracking device received FIPS 140-2 validation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Geotab is the first and only telematics company to achieve this standard.

“BSM’s activity in the government space coupled with Geotab’s proven success and commitment to security and scalability will work in tandem to dramatically accelerate Geotab’s presence across North America including in the electric vehicle space, which is an increasingly important emerging market,” added Cawse. "We are excited about what BSM will do to strengthen our ecosystem and believe that the resultant platform enhancements will benefit our customers around the globe."

Geotab has a long-standing history of providing customers with access to an open-platform solution that enables fleets to customize and scale their telematics implementation to meet their business needs. This approach has allowed the company to closely align with strategic partners that provide customizable solutions to help improve productivity, fuel efficiency, driver safety and more.

Through this transaction, BSM customers will also benefit from Geotab’s partner ecosystem. BSM will contribute some of its product and services development in asset tracking, winter ops, third-party integration and off-road equipment tracking to the Geotab Marketplace, Geotab’s extensive online solutions center for managing mobile assets and workers.

“Following the announcement of our expanded partnership with Geotab in late 2018, it became clear that BSM’s growing analytics and optimization capabilities combined with Geotab’s best in class telematics solution results in an enhanced product offering to fleet management customers. As part of the Geotab team we will be able to offer these capabilities across all of Geotab’s partner network,” said Louis De Jong, President and CEO of BSM. “The combination of BSM and Geotab is a great outcome for all of BSM’s stakeholders.”

Contract with GSA will see telematics tech rolled out to 217,000 US Government vehicles.

IoT and connected transport firm Geotab has announced a deal with General Service Administration (GSA) to equip over 200,000 of its vehicles with its fleet management technology.

The deal, which is the largest single-source telematics contract to date, will see the technology implemented into GSA Fleet, a division of GSA that provides vehicles to US Federal agencies.

Established in 1954, GSA Fleet conduct vehicle acquisition, leasing and disposal, maintenance control, accident management and loss prevention services and is one of the largest non-tactical fleets in America.

Commenting, Geotab CEO, Neil Cawse praised the US Government for taking the lead in fleet technology. "With GSA paving the way, we believe the U.S. government leads the world in the adoption of telematics in the public sector. Particularly within local, state and federal agencies where fleet vehicles typically account for a large portion of their annual budget, our intelligent integrated solutions have the potential to protect capital assets, reduce associated risk, improve accountability and decrease operating costs,” he said.

Geotab, the Canadian telematics platform provider, has won the North American Product Leadership award in Frost & Sullivan’s 2016 Best Practices Awards.

Frost & Sullivan presents the Product Leadership award to the company it considers has developed a product with innovative features and functionality to gain rapid acceptance in the market. Geotab was recognised both for innovative fleet management telematics solutions and for the partnership-based model that has helped its fast growth.  The company now has 500,000 vehicles in 70 countries using its platform, and over 900m data points are collected daily.

“Geotab’s hardware engineering and software development success has made it a one-stop fleet management solution provider, while most competitors specialise in one or the other,” said Frost & Sullivan Senior Analyst Krishna Chaithanya. “Due to its ability to offer customers technologically superior services compared to other telematics companies in North America, Geotab has witnessed remarkable earnings growth. Company revenue stood at $76 million in 2015, up from $59 million in 2014. The company estimated that its 2016 revenue would exceed $105 million.”

The Geotab GO7 is a small form-factor GPS plug-and-play vehicle tracking device able to integrate with a vehicle’s on-board diagnostics port.  The scalable MyGeotab platform and powerful tracking algorithms allow fleet managers to track vehicles in real time and provide actionable alerts to drivers. Customers gain an in-depth understanding of fleet movement, equipment health, stoppages and routing problems to ensure optimal time management and consumer satisfaction.

The real-time integrated fleet management capabilities in the Geotab platform may not seem cutting-edge in Europe, where operators have benefited from this level of functionality for several years now,  but it does appear to be a relatively recent development in the North American market, and the feedback capabilities of Geotab’s GO TALK impressed Frost & Sullivan.

It acknowledged that one of the key benefits of the Geotab solution is the company's input-output expander (IOX) technology, which allows businesses to easily expand their fleet management capabilities for specific needs such as satellite tracking, driver ID, hours of service, camera systems, and temperature monitoring.

Geotab has made its data open for easy integration with customers’ IT systems and third-party apps. “Importantly, Geotab’s competence in data engineering and solution development results in competitively priced products that offer in-depth information about productivity, safety, efficiency, and compliance” noted Chaithanya. “It supports advanced safety management for drivers and fleets, more constructive fuel management, constant monitoring of vehicle engine health, and strict reinforcement of safety guidelines.”

 

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