Telematics and its Role in the Automotive Industry

We live in an era where vehicles are a huge part of one’s necessities. When we hear the word “vehicle”, we mainly think about the cars and heavy trucks seen on the roads passing by, but are those vehicles well maintained and monitored?  Technology plays a major role in enabling a vehicle’s efficiency while on the road. 

That technology is called Telematics. 

Telematics can be defined as a combination of two sciences (telecommunication and informatics). Telematics can also be considered a wireless device that transfers data like sending, receiving, and analyzing information over telecom. Telematics mainly focuses on monitoring the vehicle including location, speed, tire pressure, and driver behavior. In short, telematics can be considered as a tracking device installed in vehicles.

Is Telematics Worth the Hype?

Absolutely yes. We know that large organizations depend on vehicles to achieve revenue. Thereby, telematics proves its features and benefits mainly through fleet management. Being an open-platform system, telematics has allowed organizations to merge accessories including hardware, software, and mobile apps for smooth data transactions. 

When it comes to fleet management, telematics assists in six main cores: fleet optimization, fleet compliance, integration, productivity, safety, and sustainability. 

• Fleet Optimization – Telematics transforms fleet management from reactive to proactive. Telematics in fleet management helps provide accurate vehicle data including location, route efficiency, and traffic conditions. Proper vehicle data, helps positively impact customer service and profitability. Monitoring the engine functioning parameters helps in planning preventive maintenance that helps to reduce downtime. The goal of fleet optimization is to ensure every vehicle is being used in the best possible way.

• Fleet compliance – Telematics can be considered essential for real-time remote monitoring, especially when regulatory compliance is a top priority. Fleet compliance gives the fleet owners and regulatory authorities a guarantee card of their vehicle for its roadworthiness through live location, speed tracking, vehicle density, and more.  Fleet compliance provides internal auditing checking for the driver’s qualification, hours of service (HoS), crash indication, and background checks. Following these Automotive Industry Standard (AIS) 140 regulations and laws ensures better road safety and passenger protection. Using fleet compliance as a tool in telematics gives an upper hand in appreciating the software’s flexibility.

• Integration –  The integration process mainly focuses on bringing all information to one place. With software integration in fleet management, it contributes to workflow efficiency, operational visibility, and data accuracy. Along with an overview of the business operation, software integration also operates to give better customer satisfaction. Combining technologies of CRM software with other software such as geolocation service, management software, customer feedback, and supply chain creates a powerful ecosystem, and customer satisfaction helps in better data-driven decision-making. Software Integration makes a flexible and productive operative that benefits automotive telematics.

• Productivity – Telematics maximize fleet management. With productivity, the company and owners will have visibility of operations and performance. A fleet owner must always be up to date on their vehicles. A fleet improves its efficiency by monitoring through GPS tracking using a user-friendly web or mobile interface. Telematics comes as a solution in maximizing productivity by helping speeding events, analyzing the speed and the driver’s behavior, vehicle activity, maintaining schedules, and more.

• Safety – Safety in fleet management, benefits the five other main cores (fleet optimization, fleet compliance, integration, productivity, and sustainability) that help in vehicle revenue. Safety is an important feature that favors fleet owners, customers, pedestrians, and the public at large. For instance, using an emergency response system there will be fewer chances of getting into an accident. Telematics also brings various other benefits including driver coaching, vehicle health, and locating the vehicle if stolen. Safety reduces downtime simultaneously, upgrades the fleet’s flexibility, and provides visibility and capability.

• Sustainability – Telematics helps the environment and has also benefited from the adoption of telematics in fleet management. From calculating fuel usage per vehicle, decarbonization, eco-driving practices, carbon footprint, and more. Telematics also helps with concerns regarding climate change. Along with reducing fuel consumption, telematics impacts maintenance needs and costs. Besides improving fleet management, telematics promotes a clean environment and a sustainable future.

Telematics helps with real-time monitoring, such as checking for driver behavior, vehicle maintenance status, and predictive maintenance status, to analyze the condition of the vehicle and prevent further damages like excessive carbon emissions, fuel consumption, and more. Known for its features similar to GPS tracking, telematics in automotive streamlines and optimizes driver routes. The main aim of telematics is to protect one’s fleet and enhance one’s bottom line. 

Why choose telematics in the automotive industry? Here are more benefits of automotive telematics including payroll management, proactive vehicle management, insurance assessment, and more. 

• Better payroll – With accurate tracking of the vehicle from its idle motion to its running time, the owner will get a precise record of how long the vehicle was in motion. Calculating the vehicle’s engine hours and the employee’s work, the fleet owner will get a record of how workers are paid according to the time they spend working. This helps in avoiding spare time doing clerical work and potential errors.

• Proactive Vehicle Management – Repairing issues regarding the vehicle before it escalates will give it a longer and healthier life. With hours of service (HoS) and real-time notification, the owner can catch up on the defaults in the vehicle and fix them. Through maintenance improvements, the owners can keep tabs on the records of expenses spent on vehicles. Along with critical safety, proactive vehicle management protects compliance, battery life, and intake valve issues.

• Insurance assessment – Telematics used in insurance companies can observe the vehicle condition including driver behavior. Insurance assessment provides accurate risk factors that might affect the vehicle’s functioning. This allows them to plan and adjust the insurance policy, detect fraud, improve customer service, and more.

Telematics brings transparency to fleet activities. By combining telecommunication with informatics, it allows companies to receive data from multiple moving devices across the world. Companies use this data to analyze the efficiency of systems with the help of computer algorithms. Telematic technology is mainly used in vehicle, and freight container tracking.

Location, speed, idling time, fuel consumption, vehicle maintenance issues, and other data are transmitted back to the server. Additionally, gyroscope data, detecting cargo container tipping or capsizing, and other specialized data can be collected using telematics. Businesses can use this data to identify issues with their delivery system and provide their clients access to track order details.