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Telematics looks set to take centre stage over the next couple of years. In one arena, it will play a critical role in the connected car revolution; in another, there are predictions that the way companies buy fleet and workforce management solutions will be transformed. Sharon Clancy reports...

Fleet managers already appreciate the benefits real-time information telematics systems can deliver is deliver such as real-time vehicle location and driver performance data.

Increasingly they come with a range of other features that help field service companies manage both the vehicle fleet and driver behaviour.

This can include compliance with tax and working hours regulations, time-sheet management, vehicle maintenance scheduling and encouragement of more economical and safe driving by service technicians. It’s part of a trend where platform-based modular services for mobile workforce management have been growing in popularity.

 

Modular platform solutions encourage users to choose those apps and services which best suit their operations, providing customisation within an out-of-the-box offering. They are also user-friendly – you can start with the apps and processes that will deliver a quick ROI and add more functionality when business needs demands and when everyone in the organisation is familiar with new work processes. What’s all this got to do with telematics?

 

Well, the shift to web-based software-as-a-service means there’s no shortage of platform providers offering tracking and other telematics functions.

Not everyone calls themselves a telematics company, however.

Some telematics services have been added to other platforms as software-as-a-service companies seek to other one-stop solutions to their customers. Vehicle tracking companies, for example, now offer driver and vehicle performance monitoring tools.

Some telematics companies are using their telematics and fleet management expertise to offer a wide range of mobile workforce management: Fleetmatics is leveraging its web based fleet management platform to offer job management and other services. Microlise has developed its Clear solution specifically to answer the needs of field service organisations, while Telogis’s platform has been designed form the start for what the company calls “connected intelligence”.

 

Arriving from a different starting point is Trimble, which has added fleet management and telematics to its cloud-based field service management solutions.

 

So there are plenty of cloud-based solutions out there that will help you manage your fleet and activities in real-time.

Whatever the platform is called and whatever its original purpose, what they have in common is that all the modules are developed by the platform provider.

There might be partnerships with some third party providers, but it’s all controlled by the platform provider, not the application developer.

Unless you are TomTom, that is.

The Dutch company has moved the goalposts when it comes cloud-based services for mobile workforce management.

Whereas other companies in the telematics space are building their own eco systems with their own apps that customers can choose to customise their solution, TomTom has taken the innovative step of opening up its platform to third-party app developers.

“We want to make sure we have that end-to-end process and we also want to make it very easy,” explains Geroge de Boer, International Alliance, Manager, TomTom.

“All the apps in our app centre have out-of-the-box off-the-shelf compatibility with our Webfleet platform. All you have to do is plug them in,” he explains.

 

“Just as consumers are finding it to install an app on their smartphones, we want to make telematics as easy for our customers.”

 

Meanwhile, in the US, Telogis has become a partner with Apple, developing connected vehicle apps for the iOS platform.

The connected vehicle 

There’s a lot of current discussion about connected vehicles and the impact this will have on how we drive and used our vehicles.

Any field service company with a fleet management or telematics solution in place might wonder what all the fuss is about - telematics means they already have connected vehicles.

After all, telematics is all about real-time connectivity and data capture.

Data is collected from the vehicle, sent to a cloud-based platform where it is used for a variety of purposes depending on the app. It might be a location update, a video clip of a driving incident, or fuel consumption data.

However, with vehicle manufacturers’ focus now firmly on the connected vehicle, and with legislative pressure both in Europe and the US, the role of telematics is changing.

 

Connected vehicles are going to underpin safety initiatives such as Europe’s eCall, designed to ensure emergency services reach the scene of an accident in the shortest time possible by automatically sending an alarm.

 

After all, once that real-time connectivity is on the vehicle, why waste the opportunity to build-in more functionality?

Taco Van der Leij, Vice President Marketing with TomTom thinks the concept of connected vehicles will catch on fast.

“Usually when new developments such as connected vehicles are starting to evolve you need a killer app that proves there are benefits to customers. But fleet management and vehicle tracking is already happening – as an industry we already have millions of vehicles connected globally.”

With more connected vehicles out there, the number of apps using that connectivity will multiply, predicts Van der Leij.

“Field service companies will have much bigger scope and different possibilities to enhance their business. Imagine what it will be like if all vehicles are connected. You are looking at a different kind of application.”

“There is still a long way to go but that makes it interesting and challenging.”

Some manufacturers are developing their own  telematics solutions, others are not reinventing the wheel but turning to experienced partners to provide the platform.

Ford, for example, has turned to Telogis to provide the platform for its telematics solutions in the US and Europe. Other manufacturers are teaming up with local partners.

Business intelligence 

The more intelligence you have about your operations, the better equipped you are to be both proactive and reactive in making any changes to the business and the happier your customers will be.

 

Business intelligence can help you identify trends and patterns across all elements of the operation and discover where the bottlenecks and inefficiencies are, delivering insights into productivity, business process efficiencies, costs and customer service levels.

 

Telematics platforms play a key role: they receive the real-time data from vehicles and mobile device, cut-and-slice it the available data.

However, perhaps the biggest break through of all in the telematics space of recent years is that the technology is no longer restricted to the enterprise.

A raft of pay-per-user software-as-a-service models make the tools available to SMEs, enhancing their competitiveness, levelling the field and bringing thee benefits of up to date telematics systems to the wider market.

With the benefits of implementing a telematics solution both well documented and wide reaching, including improving driver behaviour, fuel efficiency and even reducing insurance premiums it makes sense for any field service company to adopt a telematics program of some sort.

 

Add to this the impending arrival of the connected fleet and the lower cost of implementation in the space and the barriers to adoption are also becoming fewer, which should also increase the widespread use of telematics in our sector.

 

However, as mentioned above the telematics providers market is a crowded one, with a number of differing approaches to be considered and assessing the pros and cons is an article in itself.

The biggest consideration however, must surely be to take a look at your service management suite as a whole and think how telematics can enhance your existing systems as well as how it can integrate with them.

For while the data produced from a telematics solution can be invaluable, as with any form of data it can also become quickly redundant if the data is not both easily accessible and effectively utilised.

 

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Field Service News Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland reflects on a busy summer in the European field service industry in his leader for issue seven of Field Service News...

Click here and complete the brief form to download a digital copy of Field Service News issue seven now

I’ll be honest, when the doors closed on the third day of this year’s Service Management Expo I gave an almighty sigh of relief...

Not only was it the end of a very busy three days but it also marked the end of what was an incredibly busy conference season in the European field service industry and to be quite frank I think everyone needed to take five just to catch their breath.

Since we published the last edition of Field Service News we’ve attended the Aston Spring Servitization Conference, The Field Service Forum, The TomTom Telematics Developers Conference and of course the Service Management Expo and each of these events brought into focus some of the key conversations that are happing in our industry today.

There has been an abundance of excellent content produced by some of the leading figures in Telematics, Servitization, IoT, Artificial Intelligence and much more with each outlining how these varying tools and technologies will impact on field service.

And whilst long may it continue, it is also good to have a little bit of time in these long, hot summer months to let all these ideas, concepts and strategies tumble around in our heads for a while. Then, as we move into the final quarter of the year, our thoughts and plans around how we can harness some of these concepts, can solidify and evolve into strategies with substance.

And as I start to bring some of my own thoughts into focus my first initial observation is that so many of these new trends are interconnected.

In the past I’ve explained my belief in this column that we are entering a golden age of service, driven by a perfect storm of technologies emerging together and if anything the last few months have reaffirmed that belief.

Service is no longer an after thought but a primary business driver and if there was ever any doubt about this it was completely eradicated at the Aston Servitization Conference.

It was fantastic to see academics and industry leaders coming together to learn from each other and at the end of an intensive two days there was no doubt in my mind that this growing trend of Servitization was moving very quickly from academic theory with a handful of industry examples (albeit high profile ones) to a considerable shift in business thinking which is continuing to gather momentum.

Indeed the topic of servitization raised it’s head again when I interviewed Sony’s John Cooper with Cooper providing a perfect example of Servitization in a new contract with Spanish media outlet Telemadrid. As Cooper himself explains “when it’s pay-per-usage - it becomes all about the service.”

Which of course brings us back to the technology, for working in the parameters of an outcome based solutions contract means that your field service operations have to be highly efficient to ensure you are delivering the uptime levels such contracts are built upon.

IoT is of course one such technology that is truly driving these changes in business thinking and culture. Sony for example employ a number of remote monitoring and diagnostics tools across their B2B technology range, and such connected devices are huge enablers for companies moving from a traditional reactive type of service operation, to a more proactive type of operation that an advanced services approach requires.

 

And it is not just the devices our engineers are repairing and maintaining that are becoming connected, it is their tools and even their vehicles themselves that are becoming connected also.

It is of course no surprise that the connected vehicle dominated conversation at the TomTom Developers Conference, but in fact it wasn’t the only game changer for fleet management discussed that day in Amsterdam.

We also saw TomTom Telematics redefine themselves as a Platform as a Service for the telematics industry with the launch of their Apps Store, and this new model for telematics, built on open integration, is something of a game changer.

It is a smart move by the Dutch Telematics giant and one which couldn’t have been better timed as another major player in the Telematics space, Microlise who have a phenomenal reputation within the haulage sector, have also turned their attention to field service with the launch of a very slick new solution Clear. 

And then of course there are the two technologies that are underpinning most change in field service, Mobile and the Cloud. 18 months ago we researched the Cloud and I made some bold predictions around it’s adoption in field service. In our latest research project we revisit some of those claims and see if, how and why the adoption of Cloud based solutions in our industry has moved on at all within the last 18 months.

Time to let those little grey cells get to work...

The great and the good of the service management industry came together at this years Service Management Expo held in London's Exel and Field Service News was at the heart of the action hosting the Field Service Solutions Zone.

Here we bring you a selection of the speakers from Day One including: George De Boer, International Alliance Manager, TomTom Telematics, Professor Tim Baines, Aston Business School, Nick Frank, Principal Consultant at Frank Partners, Steve Foxley, Customer Services Director Siemens.

 

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TomTom Telematics has launched a new smartphone app in the UK and Germany that gives drivers real-time feedback on their driving style.

TomTom CURFER uses the latest developments in connected car technology from TomTom Telematics to provide drivers with visual information on how they drive – including live and retrospective feedback on their braking, cornering, acceleration and idling.

 

“This new aftermarket solution brings the benefits of our advanced, cloud-based, fleet management technology to all drivers and passenger cars," said Thomas Schmidt, Managing Director, TomTom Telematics. “It also demonstrates the opportunities the TomTom LINK 100 and its OBD.connect SDK offer third-party developers for creating mobile apps that make use of real-time vehicle and driving data.”

 

The TomTom CURFER app works in conjunction with the TomTom LINK 100 dongle, which plugs into the vehicle’s OBD port to connect car and smartphone via Bluetooth.

In addition to gaining real-time feedback, drivers can share information on their individual driving style with friends over social media networks, monitor long-term trends and earn digital badges and similar recognitions. This allows them to compare their performance behind the wheel and compete with one another to achieve the best possible driving performance.

While the product itself doesn’t include GPS, to protect the location privacy of drivers, the TomTom CURFER app also includes an optional car finder tool that will navigate users directly to their parked vehicles.

TomTom CURFER is available on http://tomtom.com/curfer from £79.00.

 

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Haulier Ernest Cooper Ltd is set to save more than £125,000 in fuel costs over the next 12 months by improving driver behaviour across its 25-strong vehicle fleet.

The bulk tipping specialist, which transports over 1.5 million tonnes of bulk materials nationwide each year, saw mpg improve by 14 per cent and negative driving events such as idling decrease by 63 per cent in the first two months of using TomTom Telematics’ WEBFLEET fleet management system.

Ernest Cooper uses the integral driver behaviour monitoring tool OptiDrive to deliver both on-the-road coaching to drivers and full post-trip evaluation reports to managers.

“Because our drivers now get real time visual alerts on their in-cab device when they are speeding or braking and cornering too harshly, they can respond instantly,” said Ernest Cooper Ltd Director Jason Cooper. “The dramatic effect on fuel efficiency means that we are now planning to introduce the technology across our growing sub contractor fleet."

 

“The fact that OptiDrive incorporates such clear colour coding makes it really easy to see where there are problems, so we know which issues and drivers to address at a glance. We trialled various systems but decided to go with TomTom Telematics as it did exactly what the management required and was by far the superior option to its competitors."

Ernest Cooper is now set to integrate WEBFLEET with LGV-specific routing and scheduling software from Stirling Solutions. This will allow integrated order management with the TomTom Telematics PRO 8275 TRUCK ruggedized driver terminal.

"The day's schedule of jobs is sent to each driver, and as soon as they accept each job, the system automatically calculates ETAs and alerts office staff," explained Vic Ball, Managing Director of Stirling Solutions. "Customers can either track their order online or opt to receive email or text updates. Drivers can also capture customer signatures on the TomTom driver terminal, giving proof and time of delivery."

 

“The latest system will significantly improve our outstanding customer service standards by giving up-to-date ETAs for each job,” added Jason. “Being able to communicate job schedule details directly to drivers without having to text or phone them stops any ambiguity or details getting lost in translation. It will help us to run our fleet much more efficiently.”

Giles Margerison, director at TomTom Telematics, commented: “Continuous driver behaviour improvement is one of the key modern challenges for greener and safer driving. We’ve recently launched four new KPI’s in OptiDrive which allow fleet operators and drivers to learn, coach, compare and evaluate driver behaviour even more effectively.  This fully integrated approach is why we are calling it OptiDrive 360 from now on.”

 

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Whilst telematics is now a well established part of field service operations, connected devices will open the way for even greater efficiency gains. With the TomTom .connect conference just around the corner just around set to bring together the IT and developer community together to further improve the efficiency of connected vehicles TomTom Telematics George De Boer outlines how connected vehicles are changing the face of field service... 

The face of field service is changing more rapidly than ever before. Technological innovations are constantly expanding the boundaries for what is possible and connectivity, in particular, is predicted to sit at the heart of this bold new generation.

Effective use of software and hardware has long been key to delivering top-class field service but developments are now occurring at breakneck speed and the quickest adopters will gain a head-start on the competition.

Telematics itself is nothing new in the field service industry. It has long been crucial for providing visibility into the activities of mobile workers, delivering data on everything from time on site and job completion to driving performance. But connectivity and the open platform will transform its use, allowing companies to easily overcome the physical distance between a mobile worker and the office with an increased number of automated, paperless processes.

 

Data from a range of sources, including routing and scheduling, CRM and mobile hardware, can be brought together on one platform to improve efficiency and increase the sharing of intelligence across different departments.

The power of the API

A number of big players in business technology, such as Salesforce and Mendix, have long operated an open platform approach. This basically means software developers are provided unhindered access to their platform for the purpose of developing scalable integrations and applications that add extra functionality to the core system.

As a result, technological platforms can be tailored to suit a multitude of purposes and offer specific solutions for a variety of different industries.

At this year’s Service Management Expo, TomTom Telematics will showcase its own three APIs that allow developers to create solutions that bring together data from different sources.

 

The WEBFLEET.connect API allows office software - such as routing and scheduling optimisation, ERP, transport management system (TMS), supply chain planning, and asset

management - to integrate with the WEBFLEET fleet management platform.

LINK.connect allows mobile hardware - including barcode scanners, printers or temperature sensors - to integrate with the in-vehicle LINK telematics device via Bluetooth, while PRO.connect allows the creation of mobile apps for use by drivers on the tablet-style PRO driver terminal.

Efficiency through apps

The outcome for field service organisations is greater efficiency in workflow processes, improved control over mobile workers and less reliance on paper for the recording of data.

To provide an example of how that happens in the field, workers can be given access to a single app on a centrally-controlled, tablet-style device that allows them to complete a number of daily tasks.

At the start of each day or week, vehicle checks can be made via the device, with the results instantly updated in the back office to ensure maintenance schedules are up to date and Duty of Care responsibilities strictly enforced.

Once checks have been completed, daily workflow is loaded onto the device and navigation provided to each destination along the worker’s route. Using live traffic data, the fleet management software can generate accurate ETAs for each journey, with automatic alerts sent to customers via text or email to advise them of arrival time.

On arrival, the worker can submit proof of delivery using the app’s signature capture functionality or by scanning with the device’s in-built camera or NFC chip. Once jobs are completed, status is updated in the back-office system, along with daily mileage records and worker hours, eliminating the need for laborious record-keeping processes.

Revolutionary processes right out of the box

One of the most important things about the recent growth of open platform technology is that companies do not need to invest large sums in IT consultancy to benefit from the latest advancements.

Development projects no longer need to be undertaken on a case-by-case basis. Once a developer or integrator has used an API to create an app, this can be made available to all customers out of the box. TomTom Telematics, for example, has more than 330 technology partners and lists all available applications in its App Centre.

In the field service sphere, these include integrations with Brother and Zebra mobile printers and route planning and scheduling software, such as Ortec and PTV Smartour.

 

The latter integrations can deliver significant gains in customer service, allowing companies to develop a new model of dynamic planning that changes according to the situation out on the roads.

Existing routing and scheduling software can take advantage of real-time traffic information, historic journey times and up-to-date ETAs from the telematics system to ensure schedules are immediately altered to take account of any delays in previous jobs or out on the road. Similarly, the future of field service is constantly changing but firms have the tools at their disposal to meet increasing customer service demands and tackle an uncertain economic landscape by striving for greater efficiency.

 

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IT professional or Developer? Join TomTom Telematics and Field Service News at the .connect developer conference in Amsterdam June 9th

 

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Service Professional? Join TomTom Telematics and Field Service News at the Service Management Expo June 16 to 18

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Running across the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th of June the Service Management Expo remains one of Europe’s key field service events and Field Service News is pleased to be hosting the free educational sessions in the Field Service Solutions theatre once again this year.

In this the final part of this series we look at the third day sessions of the Field Service Solutions Theatre which is being hosted again by Field Service News.

Catch up on what is happening on Day One by clicking here and Day Two by clicking here.

As per Day One and Day Two of the event we see the opening session being given by the Field Service Solutions Theatre co-sponsors IFS and Field Service Management who begin proceedings with a half an hour presentation starting at 12:15pm.

Following on from this session we then move to the first of the days two interviews as once again Kris Oldland takes on his role of interviewer with his guest in the first session being Martin Summerhayes, Head of Stategy and Business Development, Fujitsu live on stage at 1.00pm.

 

In this half an hour session entitled “Employing the next generation of field service engineers” Oldland and Summerhayes will be tackling perhaps the biggest threat that field service companies are currently facing – namely that of the ageing workforce and how companies such as Fujitsu can overcome this challenge.

Having had an exceptional career working from field service engineer himself through to managing teams of varying sizes from a handful to a continent before finally arriving in his current role with Fujitsu, Summerhayes is expertly placed to share his insight into not only the dangers we face as one generation reaches retirement age but also how we must interact with the field service engineers of tomorrow from a young age in order to capture their attention and guide them towards a role in field service.

We follow this session by inviting one of the guests from last year who was a true highlight of the event program, Tim Jones, Professional Services Manager Europe and India. At last years sessions Jones explained how he had moved his field service operations to a de-centralised system, taking time to outline the reasoning for his move, the process he and his team had undergone to make such a transition, how they reorganised there teams, and of course what the early signal are as to how the move is delivering.

It was a bold move when many other field service companies were looking towards doing the opposite and centralising their operations. However, if the amount of questions Jones faced after the interview was any form of indication last years session was certainly left the seeds of an idea in a number of those who attended.

So has it actually worked? Well we’ve invited Jones back to give us the feedback on what has been successful and what has not. What he would have done differently and ultimately if he would advise other companies to follow this path.

 

Finally to bring the sessions to a close we have one final panel discussions which brings together Field Service Solution Zone sponsors TomTom with a number of their partners as we discuss “How connectivity and data are at the core of next gen field service”. The session, which also includes representatives from AllOnMobile, Magenta and Smart Witness is designed to help us put together some of the key leanings from across the three days sessions and see how all of these various technologies can come together to improve a field service organisations daily workflow.

With many predicting that the future of field service will have connectivity at its heart, it will be interesting to see from these various technology leaders about how there various systems can integrate and connect with each other to enrich the data available.  With a focus on enabling smarter decisions the session will ask how can we make the field engineers lives both safer and more effective efficient?

With a full three days worth of excellent and thought provoking line up of sessions the opportunity for discussion over a drink at the end of each day as the theatre becomes a networking hub is sure to be welcomed and on the final day it is certain to be a vibrant opportunity to discuss the ideas and trends highlighted both in the theatre solutions and the wider Service Management Exhibition as well.

 

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To join us at the Service Management Expo click here to register

 

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TomTom Telematics has launched its next generation of WEBFLEET OptiDrive, incorporating predictive real-time driving advice to empower drivers to drive in a greener, safer style.

TomTom Telematics was the first to introduce direct feedback to professional drivers, using its TomTom Driver Terminals. The feedback on drive style, including harsh braking, speeding and cornering, has now been extended with predictive driving advice. OptiDrive 360 uses vehicle and map data to advise business drivers when to take their foot off the accelerator or shift gear and what their optimum speed should be.

These innovations form part of OptiDrive 360’s complete approach for continuous driving improvement. It provides professional drivers and business management with the information to create a full improvement programme for learning, coaching while driving, post-trip evaluation and in-company comparison.

“OptiDrive 360 marks a ground-breaking development that allows businesses to work more closely with their drivers in a bid to create lasting change to driving standards.” said Thomas Schmidt, Managing Director TomTom Telematics. “The innovation has been developed following years of detailed research conducted in cooperation with the EU ecoDriver Project”.

Pre-trip, OptiDrive 360 provides motorists with best practice advice on how to drive safely and fuel-efficiently. Direct feedback and driving advice is offered during the trip to actively coach the driver. After the trip a snapshot analysis is available to review the trip statistics. All information is displayed via the driver terminal.

 

WEBFLEET provides managers with dashboards that allow them to easily highlight trends in driving behaviour. A series of in-depth reports then enables them to drill deeper for greater analysis and to compare the whole fleet.

OptiDrive 360 scores drivers based on a total of eight performance indicators – speeding, driving events, idling, fuel consumption, green speed, coasting (release gas while in gear), gear shifting and constant speed - which can be used as the basis for performance reviews, training and driver benchmarking.

Business motivations for running a green fleet can be many. Environmental ethics are laudable but the business case is clear and financial triggers can be equally compelling. Giles Margerison, Tom Tom Telematics’ Director UK & Ireland, explains how service companies can introduce an environmental strategy and considers its effect on day-to-day operations.

Environmental issues are being taken increasingly seriously by today’s world of business.

In some cases, sustainability has found its way onto service company agendas as a result of industry quotas and legislative demands, some firms simply want to become more environmentally-friendly from an ethical standpoint, others see it going hand-in-hand with business reputation and cost-savings.

Moral motivations may have taken a backseat during the recent economic downturn when, for many, business survival became the key objective. But as a leading motoring journalist recently pointed out – motives are not really the point, it’s the end result that counts.

 

Indeed those still to be convinced by moral arguments can ill-afford to ignore the fact that an environmental policy will invariably prove to also be a financially beneficial one – and this truth is particularly applicable for companies operating vehicle fleets.

In short, a green fleet policy means greater efficiency. This translates to lower fuel consumption, which in turn equals reduced costs and green house gas emissions. The business case for its introduction is therefore unequivocal.

The automotive industry is taking considerable strides to produce cleaner and greener vehicles, but slashing CO₂ emissions need not be dependent upon upgrading to fleet vehicles with superior mpg efficiency. Instead, by focusing on how vehicles are used, immediate green results can be delivered no matter the size, nature and make-up of a fleet.

Implementation of smart job allocation and scheduling is a perfect place to start, helping reduce overall mileage and carbon footprint. Dispatching the most appropriate mobile workers to jobs requires accurate management information. This will range from assessing the urgency and priority of jobs to the location of employees and traffic flow en route.

Advanced telematics systems, which combine tracking, navigation and live traffic information, enable managers to make key decisions by monitoring vehicle locations, movements and driver performance. Jobs can then be allocated to the most appropriate field operative based on who will arrive quickest. The optimal route may not necessarily be the shortest but will be the one which minimises fuel usage, idling and time spent on the road.

 

Historic road-use data can also be analysed to avoid wasted mileage, while drivers are able to avoid congestion by using live traffic information provided by navigation devices. Coupled with smart routing, factoring in not only congestion but also traffic lights, roundabouts and other obstacles, this can mean journey time savings of up to 15 per cent – and a marked reduction in emissions.

Green efficiencies through improved driving performance

The driver is the biggest factor in fuel savings accounting for around 30 per cent of the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a vehicle, and measurement of mpg underpins the potential savings in this area. Other crucial areas for measurement include vehicle idling, speeding and incidences of poor driving style, such as harsh steering or braking.

Telematics technology can draw upon all of this information, creating simple reports for organisations to profile individual drivers or entire fleets while empowering drivers themselves to improve by feeding performance data to them in real time, via in-vehicle terminals. And as research and development in this space continues apace, the performance areas that could be improved upon for greener, safer driving will develop, offering even greater opportunities for driver training and continual improvement.

 

Companies such as utilities giant Scotia Gas Networks (SGN) have demonstrated the fuel saving possibilities for this technology. SGN reduced incidences of negative driver behaviour (speeding, harsh steering, braking or acceleration) from 1,600 a day to less than 400 after implementing such technology across its 2,000+ vehicle fleet. The move resulted in an increase in average driver efficiency of 2.1 mpg.

For Zenith Hygiene Group, an incentivised scheme for the improvement of driver behaviour using TomTom Telematics’ technology saw its average vehicle mpg over the course of a year soar from 26 to 43. A study undertaken by global sustainability consultancy Environmental Resources Management (ERM), and commissioned by Vodafone, found that across its fleet this equated to almost 600 tonnes of CO2.

Such examples demonstrate how telematics data enables service companies to be fully accountable for their green policies, providing proof that requirements are being met. Moreover, managing mileage and driving behaviour not only protects the environment, it also protects drivers and companies’ all important bottom line.

 

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