For many organisations, telematics is still viewed as a fleet management tool used to track vehicles, monitor utilisation and improve driver safety.
But according to fleet leaders speaking at the AfMA Fleet Conference, the real value of telematics emerges when it starts solving problems beyond the fleet department.
During a panel discussion moderated by Chris Martin, Senior Manager, Solutions Engineering APAC at Geotab, the conversation shifted away from vehicle tracking and towards a broader question: who else in the organisation can benefit from fleet data?
“If you ask most vendors what’s telematics, what does it do, what are its benefits, you’ll hear statements like it will enhance safety, support sustainability goals, measure ESG, help with compliance, efficiency and cost control,” Martin said.
“But who are the stakeholders that really need the data, and what are they doing with it?”
That question formed the foundation of a discussion that demonstrated how telematics is increasingly supporting operational decision-making, workforce safety, finance, maintenance, compliance and executive risk management.
Beyond Vehicle Tracking
Martin argued that many organisations are still only scratching the surface of what telematics can deliver.
“What does the rest of our business think telematics is, and what does it do?” he asked. “What’s the value that it brings to the organisation?”
Rather than viewing telematics as a standalone fleet system, organisations are beginning to use it as a source of operational intelligence that can support multiple departments.
At Endeavour Energy, telematics data is now integrated into operational systems that support the electricity distribution network across western Sydney and regional New South Wales.
Fleet Operations Manager Brett Smith said telematics has become an important tool for emergency response.
“We’ve integrated it into our geospatial systems for our network overlay,” Smith explained. “It allows our control room to know where vehicles are in real time to respond to emergency situations on our network.”
During storms, bushfires and unplanned outages, telematics provides visibility of both assets and crews, helping the organisation respond faster and deploy resources more effectively.
“In the past it was always a matter of calling drivers individually,” Smith said. “It was very messy, very clunky. Digital has to happen.”
Creating Value Across the Organisation
The South Australian Department for Environment and Water has discovered similar benefits. Fleet Manager Tamara Anderson said telematics was initially introduced to improve worker safety after a remote-area incident involving a staff member.
However, the value quickly extended beyond safety.
“We use it for utilisation,” Anderson said. “When we get requests for additional vehicles, we can have a look at how the vehicles are travelling in that group and ask, do you really need one?”
The department now uses telematics data to support fleet planning, vehicle allocation and Fringe Benefits Tax management.
“We can actually provide a whole year’s worth of FBT data,” she said. “Our finance department loves it.”
Anderson said the benefits now reach multiple areas of the organisation.
“I would say mainly the drivers with the work health and safety, our fleet team with utilisation data and our finance department with fringe benefits tax.”
Breaking Down Data Silos
One of the recurring themes throughout the discussion was the challenge of connecting telematics with other business systems.
Smith described how telematics data is now being integrated into multiple platforms across Endeavour Energy, including SAP, fleet management systems, compliance systems and network operations platforms.
“We’re making use of the Geotab platform and scheduling reports at the moment,” Smith said. “We’ve got reports going out to all levels of management on vehicles within their sphere of ownership.”
The goal is to ensure the right information reaches the right people.
“It’s simply data we’ve recorded that starts the conversation,” he said.
For organisations pursuing digital transformation, telematics is increasingly becoming another critical source of operational data rather than a standalone fleet application.
The Next Frontier: Connecting Everything
Michael Mills, formerly Fleet Manager at Essential Energy and now with FleetGuru, believes the greatest value comes when telematics data is connected with maintenance, compliance and operational systems.
“When we look at the benefits of a system that’s got telematics in there somewhere, there’s way more that becomes visible at a later date by joining those together,” Mills said.
He pointed to opportunities to connect vehicle data with maintenance costs, fuel consumption, compliance records and operational performance.
“We know the science says that a vehicle that drives under the speed limit, where the driver’s well rested and the vehicle is well maintained, uses less fuel. Now we’re going to be able to validate it.”
The result is a more complete understanding of the total cost of operating fleet assets and the factors that influence that cost.
Fleet Data Is Becoming Business Data
The discussion highlighted a significant shift in the role of fleet management.
Historically, telematics has been justified through safety improvements, utilisation reporting or fuel savings. Those benefits remain important, but leading organisations are now using fleet data to solve broader business challenges.
Whether it is improving emergency response, reducing administrative effort, supporting compliance, informing investment decisions or helping executives understand operational risk, telematics is increasingly becoming part of the organisation’s broader information ecosystem.
As Martin noted, the challenge is no longer whether telematics can generate value. The challenge is helping the rest of the organisation understand that the value already exists.
When telematics starts informing operational decisions, financial outcomes and executive strategy, it stops being a fleet tool and becomes a business tool.
