Over the past few years, using telematics has evolved for fleets. What started out as improving driver fuel efficiency has evolved into multiple management functions including tracking driver safety and driving habits – speeding, swerving, wearing or not wearing seat belts, tracking miles driven, typical driving patterns, and other behaviors. In the whitepaper, “The Next Phase of Telematics: Moving Beyond Plug-and-Play,” inthinc Technology Solutions, Inc., describes what it calls its Efficient Execution Methodology (E2M). This “best practices” approach helps customers maximize value by enabling successful, repeatable and efficient delivery of the telematics solution.
For enterprise telematics deployment, setting the right goals and objectives is the first step to take in the project planning phase. For one of inthinc’s clients, Cintas, a leader in specialized business-to-business services, the company defined four main objectives for its telematics program:
1. Reduce speeding
2. Increase seat belt use
3. Reduce crashes/incidents
4. Reduce Idling
This made a dramatic change for the Cintas. By the end of the first year after implementing its telematics program, drivers had reduced speeding by more than 85% in all three of its regional divisions; seat belt use had increased in all divisions with an improvement of 79% to 89%; the Northeast division experienced a reduction of 46% in vehicle incidents in the first six months; limiting the fleet’s idle time has significantly reduced the company’s carbon emissions and fuel consumption.
One improvement method that’s working well for a lot of fleet managers has been relevant data reports for analysis. Some of the data tracked includes hours driven, which roads your drivers are on, miles per gallon driven, and idling. Tracking reports are a key element to successful driver compliance programs for many fleets. Fleets focused on increasing efficiency and reducing environmental output are gaining a lot from utilizing these data reports.
Click here to read about best practices in enterprise telematics deployment and to download a copy of this whitepaper.
