Telematics is only the first step The dot on the screen that shows where a vehicle is; and the alarm in the cab that warns a driver to slow down; are not fleet management. Intelligence that enables real- me business decision-making is. Shaun Brashaw Execu ve Technology Altech Netstar, South Africa Harman Connected Services He is a competent execu ve with over 20 years’ experience in opera onal and technical roles in the fleet management and telema cs arena, spanning South Africa, Africa, and beyond. Shaun has delivered on a mul tude of large corporate transac ons, and has developed global strategies and complex solu ons with global reach.
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egisla on in India makes it compulsory for public transport vehicles to have vehicle telema cs devices installed. Once the law comes into full effect, millions (if not billions) of data packets will be collected from vehicles every day. But to what end? Collec ng data is only the beginning. If it is not analysed and used, there is no point in collec ng it.
More than dots on maps Increasingly, vehicles are fi ed with telema cs devices during the manufacturing process, enabling vehicle manufacturers to collect data on the performance of their products. They use this informa on to design be er vehicles. But there is another side to the telema cs coin: fleet management. In the case of India’s legisla on, it is in the public interest to run busses and taxis as effec vely and efficiently as possible. Similarly, private fleet managers have much to gain from data that gives them visibility on all aspects of their businesses at all mes. PG.24 | Smart Automo ve | Jul - Aug 2017
This is where telema cs can and should come into its own. Fleet management is about an en re ecosystem that is networked through the internet of things (IoT) and pulled together through big data analy cs. Enormous benefits can be derived from drawing in data from different sources – not only vehicles – to provide a single view of the business through a userfriendly online portal. For us the purpose of telema cs is fleet management in the most comprehensive sense of the word, namely a second-by-second view of the business that gives execu ves the context they need to make businesses decisions in real me. The ecosystem includes regulatory requirements and legisla on, safety and compliance (eg, axel mass, up-todate licences), fuel management, risk management, health and safety ma ers, scheduling and dispatch, and gate management.
disciplinary ac on are the domain of Human Resources. Depot managers o en work in silos, failing to coordinate vehicle u lisa on and route op misa on. And nobody comes even close to an immediate understanding of the total cost of ownership of each individual vehicle and the fleet as a whole. Fleet management entails far more than the harves ng of informa on from a truck and its driver; it has to be a holis c process. We see fleet management as the ability to manage all your transport risks and opportuni es from one portal. IoT broadens our horizons like never before. In addi on to vehicle u lisa on, driver behaviour, fuel and salary bills, and the legisla ve boundaries within which operators have to func on, we can now develop unique solu ons for each of the ver cals served by the transport sector by monitoring and repor ng on the quality of goods in a shipment.
Currently, fleet telema cs concentrates largely on driver behaviour. Tracking devices locate vehicles on an electronic map, while monitoring driving ac ons such as speed control, braking and accelera on. However, this informa on exists in isola on, as do the other ecosystem elements. The company’s fuel account, for instance, is managed through a fleet card system that resides in the Finance Department, while issues such as rewards and recogni on, career planning and www.telema cswire.net I www.coe-iot.com
