For the last few years, telematics technology has been at the forefront of discussions across both the privately owned and fleet vehicle industries, with consensus being that such technology provides. However, when we come to talking about installing a telematics solution across an entire fleet of vehicles many company decision makers are still struggling to build a business case to demonstrate the necessary return on investment needed to justify a potentially large investment.
Here we discuss some of the areas where a telematics solution could benefit your business:
Fuel Costs
This is often at the core of most business cases given the ease in which benefit can be demonstrated with the potential of significant cost savings, particularly given the high prices seen at the pumps over recent months and years.
Telematics solutions can enable you as a company to promote more efficient driving by using the data to identify and reduce driving behaviours such as speeding, harsh acceleration and idling. Telematics solutions which also include routing and sat nav software make it possible to ensure that the most efficient routes are taken whilst reducing duplicate journeys. For example, allowing a delivery company to better plan their day’s schedule for a more efficient operation.
A telematics solution also gives the ability to review mileage claims to cut down on excessive claims, an indirect way of reducing fuel related business costs.
Wear and tear
One knock-on effect of reducing fuel cost is reducing wear and tear to your vehicles. As a result of any changes or training efforts installed to help improve driver behaviours, vehicles should be travelling more efficiently both in terms of mileage and routing and also in the way that they are driven, reducing pressure on areas such as tyres, brakes etc.
Collisions and accident rates
Telematics solutions can be used to identify training requirements. By identifying patterns of behaviours such as harsh braking, sudden acceleration, and hard cornering, it’s possible to target training and refresher courses to improve and reduce the risk of collisions resulting from such driver behaviour. However, whilst this may seem straight forward it also requires sensible business management and the ability to fully analyse the data to identify any potential reasons for certain driver behaviours. For example, are business targets and processes causing such behaviours involuntarily by putting drivers under undue pressure to perform and causing them to drive in a riskier manner than would be expected? Taken together, these two sets of insights can act as a very powerful tool to your business.
Driver health and safety
The ability to address the issue of fatigue is a significant one, given the serious related road risks. Being able to alert drivers to early signs of fatigue and encourage responsible driver behaviour, particularly amongst drivers who work unsociable hours or shifts which go against the normal daily routine, should be high up on business’s agenda to ensure their duty of care to drivers.
Some research has shown that simply knowing that they are being monitored can have a positive impact on driving behaviour. Telematics systems with an immediate feedback solution such as a traffic light system are available. Alongside this, introducing a sense of competition that rewards driving improvements in a positive way can also have a beneficial impact not only on driving behaviours but also on the workforce.
There are clear benefits to installing a telematics solution within your fleet, however the key is to really embed the technology into the heart of the company. Simply installing the technology won’t get you very far, time and effort will need to be invested in looking at the data produced to really get the most out of the technology and to identify factors which could help you effect real change in driver behaviour and therefore cost savings to your business.
Inevitably, making use of these advances in technology could also have a benefit on the rising costs of insurance premiums. Some insurers respond favourably to companies that can demonstrate the use of a telematics solutions as an integral part of their risk management strategy, as well as positively viewing companies who take health and safety seriously. Here at Anthony Jones we are happy to offer assistance to customers to help overcome any perceived barriers and enable more organisations to start benefiting from telematics solutions. Visit our transport and logistics pages for more information on what we offer and how we can help you.
