The possibilities presented by emerging ‘big data’ are overwhelming for fleets and they risk collecting too much data that has no strategic purpose, says Chevin Fleet Solutions.

Chevin is aware of fleets who have taken sophisticated telematics packages and turned off the data feed after a fortnight because they were being swamped by data for which they had no purpose.

This is a problem in many other areas where new technology means that the amount of data available to fleets is beginning to rise exponentially.

Ashley Sowerby, managing director at Chevin, said: “The flood of data can leave fleet managers confused. We can see it in fleets that take large amounts of maintenance data, for example, and this something that is only going to get more acute with the rise of the connected car.

“It might be impressive for you to glance at your screen and know that the engine of a vehicle 200 miles away is turning over a 1,800 rpm – but does it really help you to manage your fleet more effectively?"

Before committing to take data, fleets need to ensure that it will help them to meet their strategic aims.

“We work with some fleets where there might be 15 different data feeds and they all have a purpose but others have four and only use two of them,” Sowerby said. “It is all about what works most effectively for your organisation.

“Recently, much of the work that we have undertaken has been aimed at producing software that helps fleets to make sense of big data, for example, creating reports that have a genuine and specific use.”