Fleet Management

On average, a total of six percent of all fuel charges made to businesses in the UK are fraudulent, according to data from the Department of Transport. That’s a huge amount, especially if you’re a small to medium business. The problem that most firms face is actually proving that their employees are taking an extra mile or two here and there and then confronting them with the evidence.

Thanks to telematics-based GPS management systems, this is an issue of the past. The technology, which can be accessed through a smartphone and more recently through the cloud, enables fleet managers to track vehicles, uncovering their driving routes and the amount of time spent on the job. Through this, it is easy to pick out fraudulent expense claims, with the proof to go with it. So if an employee takes a business journey and embarks on a long detour halfway through it for non-work purposes, it can easily be spotted and will be rejected as part of their fuel expenses.

What other ways can telematics reduce fleet costs?

Insurance

One area that doesn’t get enough attention is the potential for telematics to lower insurance premiums. When used in conjunction with a drivers’ safety programme that uses GPS tracking data to instruct staff how they can drive more safely, the introduction of telematics can result in reduced insurance premiums.

You’ll have to prove that you’re using the technology to improve driver safety, however. So, if you have a fleet that has an overall problem with speeding, you’ll have to demonstrate that you have taken corrective action to eliminate the problem before your insurance provider is likely to consider reducing your premiums.

Maintenance

Telematics also provides under the bonnet diagnostics data which enables businesses to control costs and streamline maintenance. You can:
* Set reminders to change oil, in addition to other maintenance actions.
* Check on engine diagnostics to identify marginal problems before they turn into expensive larger ones, while lowering the possibilities of roadside repairs.
* Track all service records, which includes the name of the technician used and date and type of maintenance required. This helps control repair costs and will in addition prolong the life of the vehicles.

Fuel usage

Fuel is one of the biggest expenses for businesses, and GPS tracking systems are able to control the costs of fuel consumption in a number of ways.
* Improving journey efficiency. A tracking system allows your employees to plan their journeys more efficiently, finding the quickest route and thereby lowering fuel costs.
* Reducing speeding. You can monitor the speed of your fleet 24/7, ensuring that your employees slow down. Not only does reducing your speed ensure safer driving habits, it also reduces the amount of fuel you use.

Businesses that implement this form of technology are able to reduce their fuel costs by an average of 20-25%. Add this to the possible savings made on insurance premiums, maintenance costs and fuel fraud and a wireless fleet management system really does pay its way in cost reductions.

The transport and fleet management industries are always keen to exploit new technology to make their operations more efficient and cost-effective. Telematics is one of the latest innovations to be making a big impact on the sector.

You’re probably familiar with the concept of aircraft flight recorders used to reconstruct what happened in the event of an incident. In the automotive sector, telematics is similar in that it involves a ‘black box’ installed in the vehicle, but its uses go well beyond worst-case scenarios.

Real-time recording

This technology can be used to record and track vehicle behaviour in real time. This is increasingly being offered by insurance companies to monitor young drivers, for example. For fleets, using telematics in this way has other advantages.

It can be used to monitor fuel consumption and driving habits. For example, it can identify when drivers are leaving their engine idling for long periods or when they’re accelerating and braking harshly. This information can then be fed into driver education and improvement programmes. This, in turn, can deliver savings in fuel use and can help to reduce wear and tear on the vehicle. The technology can also help in ensuring compliance with things like working hours rules or making sure that drivers take the most efficient route.

The vehicle itself can be monitored too. Of course, you can track the mileage, but things like CO2 emissions can also be measured, along with temperatures and fluid levels. This can help with planned servicing and can also identify any latent issues so that they are able to be fixed before they turn into serious problems.

Geo-monitoring

GPS monitoring of the vehicle can help avoid abuse by legitimate users, but it can also be used to locate vehicles in the event of theft. Geofencing can be used to ensure a vehicle sticks to its planned route – or stays within a defined geographic area – alerting base if it strays off route.

It can help to make routes more efficient too, especially if linked to traffic information in real time, allowing controllers to reroute vehicles to avoid congestion, or to inform customers when a delivery isn’t going to be on time.

Linking telematics to other technologies such as dash cams brings additional benefits too. It can help to provide evidence in the event of a collision and can also assist in ensuring driver compliance, spotting bad habits and so on.

Business case

There is a strong business case for using this technology in your vehicle fleet. The obvious benefits are in fuel and maintenance savings, which can be significant. Some users have seen savings of more than 10 percent in their fuel bills alone. But the technology can also deliver less wear and tear on vehicles caused by harsh driving, as well as reduced levels of accidents, thus cutting insurance costs.

While obviously there is some capital cost involved in installing telematics technology, the potential savings to be gained can more than outweigh this. All of this builds up to a strong business case for installing the technology.

Telematics encompasses the fields of telecommunications, vehicle technologies, electrical engineering, instrumentation and computer science.

One powerful example of telematics at work was the landing on Mars by the Mars Scientific Laboratory, which included the Curiosity Rover. The whole nine-month journey, the landing and analysis of samples, was entirely controlled from Earth using telemetry, and the data that was sent back gave us lots of new information about the Red Planet.

One telematics system that we are much more familiar with is the global navigation satellite system and mobile communications which together gives us automotive GPS navigation systems. By adding sensors and cameras to a vehicle, other vehicle telematics applications are possible, such as incident reporting, vehicle and trailer location tracking, monitoring of live feeds from onboard cameras and sensors, and monitoring of fuel and CO2 levels.

The insurance industry has seen a rise in fraudulent claims for vehicle damage and injury, but the use of in-vehicle dashboard cameras has deterred fraudsters from targeting vehicles with such cameras, as the videos can be used to provide accurate and admissible evidence of any such incident.

Telematics systems for trailer tracking can put to an end the underutilisation of trailers. Hauliers and fleet managers can, for example, track trailers in real-time, to monitor their mileage and exact location. Fleet managers can get real-time reports of the whereabouts of trailers and whether they are on the road or at a pick-up or delivery site. This information can help the dispatcher make future decisions on the assignment of trailers to particular drivers. With the addition of other sensors, status changes can be seen, particularly whether the trailer still has its load or is empty. All this helps companies streamline their operations, and over time, this asset data collection enables the trucking company to improve practices and increase productivity.

When a trucking company uses monitoring of live feeds from onboard cameras, drivers adopt a totally different mindset, as they are more conscious that their driving behaviour is under scrutiny.

Another benefit to both drivers and their insurance companies is the use of an in-vehicle telemetry unit which monitors the driver’s performance using the mobile communications network. The unit will send back information such as the time, the speed driven at on different types of roads, full mileage and journey information, and how the brakes and accelerator were used. The use of this technology helps to drive down the cost of insurance and helps make the roads safer. The information collected can be used to assess vehicle insurance risk and future premiums, and it can also track the location of vehicles if stolen and provide evidence in the case of a claim after an accident.

Using camera footage of a driver’s reactions can help to improve driver performance and is invaluable in creating feedback in the training of drivers. The driver’s g-force and accelerometer data, along with the downloaded video footage, can be used to identify specific areas for training and can create an incentive programme for improvement.

The term telematics is a marriage between telecommunications and computer science in the general sense. In recent years, the term has become associated almost exclusively with transportation. Making use of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and a modem installed in the vehicle, container or trailer, a variety of data may be communicated between the transport company’s control room and the driver, and vice versa.

The possibilities are far-reaching, with images of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and international optimisation coming into play. However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Today, the individual company may reap many benefits from making the most use of the telematics available. Networking systems are being applied across regions and countries and will grow rapidly in the coming decade, allowing seamless operation between companies.

Company applications

Driver safety and performance are of key interest to the fleet manager as they ensure that the company maintains a good public driving image and full compliance with all legal requirements.

The fleet manager is interested in individual driver behaviours, such as driver speed limit compliance, harsh braking habits, hours on the road and behind the wheel and route maintenance. These may be part of a basis for coaching. Many companies operate safety programs with video shows promoting safety by their drivers. Some have incident-free mileage awards to encourage safety awareness. Use of a 3G/4G camera allows footage to be viewed in training sessions.

For the maintenance manager, the focus is on transmitting and monitoring basic diagnostics on the vehicle’s performance such as tyre life, oil pressure, engine temperature, brake safety and electrical system operation. Reminders of the vehicle’s MoT status and of the driver’s license expiry will prevent unnecessary fines.

Some features of interest from the operations and logistics standpoint are fuel levels and the nearest source, location of the vehicle vs a late call on the way, route advice from control vis-a-vis traffic patterns and congestion, and trailer or container usage monitoring.

Use of cameras

3G/4G cameras are used to transmit visual data that is used remotely for security and safety. These records may be used for insurance reporting, in accidents or theft, assisting in incident report verification. Some of the records may be useful in coaching and training programs.

Compared with other systems, the 3G/4G camera is tamper-proof which is a strong advantage for insurance report usage.

Trailer tracking

Trailers are essentially the company’s stock in hand, from which the company’s revenues are generated. They cannot be left idle or misdirected for any length of time, and cannot be partly loaded for freight that is not appropriately valuable. In particular, they must not be transported empty.

So, one good business reason for using telematics to track trailers is to keep trailers moving by having a system that reports each trailer’s location and its delivery status, expected release date and next engagement.

Right-sizing your fleet means that the information from the tracking system may be used to estimate the total number of trailers in use at any time vs the number in the fleet. Efforts may then be made to schedule usage to achieve the highest possible loading. The trailer yard can also be managed to ensure that loading bays are available when needed.