By integrating across these disciplines, the organisation can build an overall picture of how its resources are being utilised.

By knowing ‘where’ and ‘when’, organisations are better able to understand productivity based on location/time spent at certain jobs or stops, which can be further analysed by work group, location, department, etc.

‘Telematics is moving quickly – the latest leap forward is online hosted systems’

Peter Bingham, managing director, SageQuest

In order to maintain the benefits which telematics offers and, indeed continually improve them, the customer and the vendor need to have more of a partnership approach than might at first be thought.

A ‘typical’ installation goes through distinct phases:

• First, there is the install followed by a passive phase during which benchmark
• information can be gathered.
• Second, the system goes live and the employees are trained to use it.
• Third, and going forward, the system becomes a familiar tool and is then integrated into other systems to enhance business efficiency.

The telematics market is moving very quickly indeed.

The major leap forward in the past few years has been the introduction of online hosted systems or SaaS (Software as a Service), as opposed to the traditional systems that require physically updating. 

I would always advise clients to stay abreast of the technology improvements that are taking place in the vehicle and business environments.

This will enable them to see if they can be incorporated into their fleet management system.