Fleet telematics has changed dramatically over the past two decades.
What was once largely viewed as a way to locate vehicles on a map has developed into a source of detailed information about driver behaviour, vehicle use, operational performance and fleet risk.
But according to Andrew Hutson, Director at Geosecure, collecting more data does not necessarily make a fleet better.
The value comes from knowing what to do with it.
“Anyone can plug a system in. The system will just do what a system does, but it’s going to generate data. It’s really what you do with that data,” Hutson said.
Geosecure provides telematics and fleet management safety solutions to organisations across a range of industries, helping operators use fleet information to better understand how their vehicles and drivers are performing.
Hutson has worked in telematics for more than 25 years across several international markets and says the technology available to fleet operators has become more accessible, more capable and more cost effective.
“The data is more accessible, it’s more cost effective, and it can help operators understand where risks are and how they can address them,” he said.
For Hutson, however, good fleet technology is not defined by the amount of data a system produces.
“It all comes back to accurate data that is insightful and actionable,” he said.
That distinction has become increasingly important as organisations attempt to use telematics for more sophisticated tasks such as driver coaching, safety management and operational performance.
A simple driver score, for example, may provide limited value if it does not take into account the environment in which that person is operating.
“In a large organisation, a large fleet, you’re going to have multiple divisions and multiple personas and people, and being able to manage that variance in what people are doing and how they’re doing it” is critical, Hutson said.
“Someone might be doing 50k’s a week and someone’s doing 1,000k’s a week.”
Being able to normalise that information and understand the context behind the numbers can help fleets identify the actual cause of a problem.
“Only then do you start to really get to the root cause,” Hutson said.
That root cause may not always be driver behaviour.
It could point to a need for better coaching, but it could also reveal that a driver is being asked to cover too much distance, that a route is inefficient or that an operational process needs to change.
This is where telematics can move beyond reporting and become a fleet management tool.
Hutson said the goal should be to use technology to create processes based around realistic and achievable goals and metrics.
That can also make comparisons between drivers or business units fairer.
“If some organisation wants to compare driver to driver, that has to be a fair comparison,” he said.
Those capabilities reflect how the role of telematics has evolved.
For many fleets, the conversation is no longer simply about compliance or proving that a policy exists. Data is increasingly being used to understand operational performance and identify ways to improve how vehicles and people are being deployed.
“If you can’t measure it, it’s very difficult to manage it,” Hutson said.
Geosecure’s focus on turning fleet information into usable insights also aligns with its sponsorship of the Fleet News Group Awards, particularly as the program recognises organisations using technology to solve genuine fleet problems.
Hutson said innovation should not be measured simply by whether an organisation has implemented a new system.
The more important question is what the organisation is doing with it.
“If systems are going in and you’re kind of leaving it to the driver to self-coach and self-improve without the broader program in place, then that’s going to be a struggle,” he said.
Geosecure works with clients across multiple sectors, giving the company insight into different approaches to fleet safety, compliance and operational management.
That cross-industry exposure also allows successful approaches from one sector to be considered in another.
It is an increasingly important role as fleet managers are presented with larger volumes of information from vehicles, drivers and connected systems.
More data is not necessarily the answer. Better decisions are.
