At Geotab Connect 2025 in Orlando, Florida, with 3,800 attendees—including staff, resellers, customers, and marketplace suppliers—Sean Killen, Vice President of Global Markets at Geotab, provided key insights into the differences in fleet management across Australia, Asia, and Latin America in an exclusive interview.
With Geotab’s global presence, Killen has firsthand experience in how fleet operations vary by region, influenced by regulation, business structures, and technological adoption.
Australia: A Market on the Cusp of Change
While many in Australia feel like they are lagging behind in fleet technology, Killen sees it differently.
“I wouldn’t say you guys are too far behind. You’re a little behind, you’re a little behind. It’s an interesting market in terms of, it’s like many things in Australia—it’s insulated and very specific to Australia.”
A unique aspect of Australia’s telematics landscape is the presence of local competitors that have shaped the market.
“You have some homegrown telematics companies that have become bigger companies, and so that has kind of stayed in the ecosystem there, and they’re still competitors. You haven’t seen the big North American companies, besides Geotab, make that big investment. And in Australia, it’s hard because it’s a long way away. It’s on a different time zone.”
However, Killen believes the market is now catching up.
“What I found in Australia is the tech is finally catching up now, so the companies are finally realising what Geotab can do compared to the competitive companies there. We’ve been one of the biggest companies in the world, so we have that R&D scale that they just don’t have.”
A major shift is coming in enterprise adoption, particularly with the largest logistics operators.
“To change over an entire fleet in operations, like it’s like a heart transplant, like it’s hard, so they’re trying to delay that as much as they can. And if they don’t see the value, and we don’t get time with their executives and talk to them about it, they’ll never make the change. That’s starting to change now.”
Killen sees video integration as the next game-changer for the Australian market.
“As video in Australia does what it’s doing in Mexico right now—it’s already done in the United States—it’s going to start in Australia too… What’s happening now, and what Geotab has done with partnerships through people like Lytx, is we’ve put it all together. So now I give you a video experience in my software that all the video safety stuff is captured in the telematics software.”
Latin America: A Safety-Driven Market
While Latin America shares some similarities with Australia, the fleet market dynamics are different.
“Latin America is different. It’s so close to the United States that all the competitors in North America have gone into Mexico and not as many have gone farther south.”
Despite the challenges, Geotab has made significant inroads.
“Latin America, we’re very successful in—about 300,000 subscribers. I don’t think there’s a single country, major country, we don’t have at least 10 or 12,000 vehicles driving around.”
Unlike expectations that Latin America would be a market dominated by small and medium businesses, Geotab’s success has been driven by major corporations prioritising safety.
“People always think in Latin America it’s going to be a small and medium business. It’s just a natural tendency. And I’m like, totally different—all big corporations, all big corporations driven by safety.”
Major global brands are driving the adoption of telematics to protect their reputations and assets.
“The last thing they want is a Budweiser truck in an accident in Mexico, like it’s their biggest nightmare. It’s bad for the brand. It’s bad for everything. Obviously, they don’t want to hurt people, but it’s really bad public relations-wise, too. So everything is safety-driven from these big brands.”
Asia: Price Sensitivity Slowing Adoption
Asia, despite its large population, has not seen fleet technology adoption at the same pace as Australia and Latin America.
“It’s very slow on the adoption, because it’s just, it’s just slow. You have a lot of Chinese stuff on the very, very low end, and it’s very price-point driven. And it’s basically just, ‘Hey, where’s my vehicle? There it is. Is he speeding? Is there fuel on the vehicle? That’s all I need.’”
Fleet management in many Asian countries remains focused on cost over advanced analytics. Despite these challenges, Killen sees early adopters beginning to invest in higher-value telematics.
“There will be early adopters. We’re already seeing in Indonesia right now, where the early adopters are going, ‘What do I get for my 20?’ And then you tell them, and they go, they do the math, and they go, ‘Let’s give it a try.’ And we’re starting to see that early adoption.”
Japan, meanwhile, presents a unique opportunity due to its cultural focus on safety.
The Future of Fleet Technology
Killen sees Australia as the next major market for telematics advancements.
“To me, the next three years, the focus of Southeast Asia APAC is Australia. I just see all the companies there are ready to go to that next level of telematics.”
His concept of “version one” and “version two” telematics underlines the shift happening in Australia today.
“What’s in Australia right now is version one, except for Geotab. We’re version two, which is all the big data, AI—all that’s where it’s going with the video integration.”
With AI and deeper data insights on the horizon, Killen believes fleets across all regions will eventually modernise.
“The margins are so tight, and the Linfox and Toll Group sized entities have already done it. The small, local, entrepreneurial guys will have to do it, too.”
As fleets across Australia, Latin America, and Asia face their own unique challenges, Geotab continues to be at the forefront of innovation—bridging regional differences with global fleet management solutions.
