Are you reaping the rewards of vehicle telematics?

Four big opportunities to transform fleet management with advanced telematics.

Game-changing solutions like O2 Smart Vehicle, powered by Geotab, are rapidly pushing back the limits of vehicle telematics. They’re redefining the cost-efficiency, productivity and safety of today’s fleets. So, whether you’re already using some form of vehicle telematics, or are considering doing so, now’s the time to reassess what today’s advanced solutions have to offer.

Fleets like yours are using advanced vehicle telematics to achieve millions of pounds worth of financial savings and performance gains every year. Or to put it another way, they’re saving almost £1,150 per HGV per month; or around £133 p/m for a typical passenger car. (1)

Just think what those savings would add up to across your own fleet each year.

Let’s start by taking a look under the hood of today’s cutting-edge vehicle telematics.

The state of the art
On-Board Diagnostic (OBD-II) devices are the latest step-change in vehicle telematics. They plug discretely and covertly into the OBD-II port of the vehicle, and give fleet managers remote visibility of detailed information about each driver and vehicle.

What sets O2 Smart Vehicle apart is its unique database of over 6,000 reverse-engineered engine diagnostic trouble codes. Combine this with extensive scope for in-car coaching and alerts, and you have a complete solution for both proactive and reactive driver and vehicle management.

Now let’s look at four areas of fleet management you can dramatically improve with advanced vehicle telematics.

1. Ramp up productivity
Long vehicle idling times and inefficient route planning reduce your fleet’s productivity and profitability. So use real-time insights and comprehensive visibility of your entire fleet to increase efficiency and maximise your profit margin.

Advanced telematics help you complete jobs faster by deploying the most suitable vehicles and drivers. You can plan smarter shift patterns and complete more customer calls or drops on every round. And you can cut mileage reporting, idling times and expensive overtime claims.

Solutions like O2 Smart Vehicle are proven to boost productivity by up to 12%, and to reduce manpower costs by the same figure.

2. Drive down fuel costs
Aggressive driving wastes huge amounts of fuel. It’s estimated that excessive acceleration and heavy braking can reduce fuel economy by up to 33% for non-urban driving. By delivering alerts and coaching drivers in real time, you can work towards eradicating bad habits behind the wheel.

Using O2 Smart Vehicle to promote better driving styles can help you save up to 14% of your fleet’s fuel costs, and reduce MPG by between 7% and 14%.

3. Take a proactive approach to maintenance
Aggressive driving is a sure-fire way to cause excessive wear and tear on components, leading to unplanned downtime and unnecessary expenditure. The cost of unscheduled maintenance interruptions range from £310 - £545 per day, not including repair costs.

Remote vehicle monitoring and in-car coaching give you three ways to tackle this issue:

• Actively correct poor driving with real-time alerts, which will help prevent component damage.
• Remotely monitoring engine fault codes means you can take fast corrective action as soon as a problem emerges.
• Remote visibility of mileage makes it easy to maintain correct vehicle servicing intervals.

O2 Smart Vehicle helps you implement predictive maintenance and keep your fleet on the road, while reducing maintenance and repair costs by up to 14%.

4. Improve vehicle and driver safety
Think how much more quickly and divisively you could respond to an accident if you were alerted the instant it happened. Depending on the severity of the incident, you could immediately notify the emergency services, and start arranging vehicle and/or driver recovery.

Not only that: with O2 Smart Vehicle, you can take proactive steps that drastically cut the risk of accidents. Real-time in-car coaching can help you reduce accidents by 45%.

The financial benefits of safer driving are significant too: like a 50% reduction in accident pay-out costs and up to 25% lower comprehensive insurance costs.

(1) All data is sourced from Geotab white paper ‘Increasing Profitability with Telematics’, 2016. Figures are based on US$ data converted into GBP in April 2017. Figures relate to light duty vehicles (e.g. passenger cars) covering 24k miles per year unless indicated.