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Like many journalists these days I started my research for this feature with a trawl through the Internet to get some background information Google tends to be the place where most of us start our web activity so I asked it to 'define vehicle telematics' and it threw up umpteen solutions. The one I liked best, although it is a bit verbose, was this:"Telematics is the use of telecommunication in conjunction with informatics, eg the passing of information from one computer to another via a telephone line or other electronic link.The basic promises of telematics are obvious. by giving access to any form of knowledge anywhere, it speeds up the diffusion of information, saves time, increases collaboration between individuals and groups, and improves the quality of decisions."
Better business decisions
The unlikely source for this Commercial Motorquote is the European Health Telematics Observatory and I like the quote because it focuses on the benefit of telematics.To whit: helping you make better business decisions and being more efficient Basically, if a product or service you are offered can't assist you in either of those ambitions then it's not worth your investment These days many trucks, as well as the
traffic office, are equipped with computers — as part of the vehicle's own equipment or through the use of a PDA (personal digital assistant), which is basically a handheld computer. The big breakthrough comes when you can get these two essential parts of the supply chain talking to each other.
The issues any road transport operator faces fall into three main areas: legal compliance; vehicle management; and transport management. The road transport sector is increasingly turning to telematics to give faster, more accurate reporting and traceability between the vehicle and the office to meet these demands.
Indeed, according to recent research carried out by leading business and financial adviser Grant Thornton, almost a third (32%) of UK haulage firms are looking to invest in telematics technology over the next 12 months in order to improve productivity in this sector. But this is nothing new; the research goes on to state that 50% of the industry is already using some form of telematics.
"Monitoring a wide range of journey factors in real time has created immediate productivity pay-offs within the haulage industry," says Ian Carr, a partner with Grant Thornton's Recovery & Reorganisation practice. 'This includes improved service standards through sharing information with clients, reduced fuel consumption through monitoring engine behaviour, and assistance in conforming with the increasingly strict regulatory environment."
Competitive pressures
The greatest uptake of telematics (69%), according to the report, was within the medium-sized fleets (£6m-21 Urn turnover), identified in the survey as the sector with the greatest competitive pressures. Larger fleets (£11m-plus turnover) had a telematics uptake of just 37%, but this is the group with the greatest number of organisations (47%) planning to implement telematics technology over the next 12 months, According to Carr, the cost of introducing telematics is £800 per vehicle. The payback period (not taking into account critical customer service improvements) can be 12 months or less. Te,lematics technology also provides environmental benefits through reduced incidence of vehicles being caught in congestion, he adds.
Carr says telematics are also being used to monitor driver behaviour. This has taken on even greater importance since the introduction of the European directive on drivers hours last month, restricting the number of hours worked to 56 in a seven-day period, and just 90 hours in a single fortnight.
"Some organisations surveyed are actually tagging drivers now, and although it can be a difficult and sometimes unpopular process to implement, we believe legal and regulatory pressures will continue to encourage hauliers to implement driver monitoring," he adds.
While many companies will inevitably shy away from this 'Big Brother' step, the implications are clear, anything that can be measured in your business should be measured if you are really serious about driving down cost and improving efficiency.
The general introduction of telematics will soon become an industry standard, Carr believes:This technology is fast becoming the benchmark, and fleets that choose not to invest may soon struggle to compete, both financially and in terms of service standards."
Not surprisingly, this market demand hasn't gone unnoticed and a plethora of software suppliers have jumped on the bandwagon over the past 10 years or more aiming to line their pockets. Many have failed to understand the specific needs of this sector, and have inevitably fallen by the wayside, while others have over-promised and under-delivered and succeeded in damaging not only their own reputation, but also the reputation of the telematics supply sector in general.
The road transport industry has, however, become more discerning in its telematics needs and understands what is possible. The old notion of 'if you can think it, we can do it' put around by many in the sector to woo unsuspecting punters seems to have dissipated, and there appears to be more order in what operators both require and expect from these suppliers.
Well recognised system
Many of the truck manufacturers led the charge into telematics a number of years ago, with Volvo's Dynafleet emerging as arguably the most well recognised system Clive Naylor is head of Volvo's Transport Information System, the division responsible for Dynafleet "Dynafleet gives us a real differentiator over our competition," he tells us:Approximately a fifth of all Volvo trucks sold in the UK are equipped with Dynafleet, and operators are showing a real interest in what's available.
"At the core of Dynafleet is fuel management and operators can expect a 5% fuel efficiency gain through a focus on this area via the system We're now also seeing operators showing more interest in the satellite navigation and tracking elements of the offer.To a lesser extent we're also noticing people want to take advantage of the communication capability.
"The drive here is less around cost and more to do with management traceability," Naylor adds.
In addition to the vehicle manufacturers, there's also a multitude of independent suppliers in the market, many leading the way in specific sectors. RoadTech's Tachomaster system, for instance, is one of the best tachograph monitoring systems available on the market, while NavMan and TomTom are scrapping it out for the honours on vehicle navigation systems Regular Commercial Motor readers will be well aware of the recent free transport management software offer we ran on our website www.roadtransport.com with Database Business Systems PBS).
Over 500 operators have taken advantage of the free software offer," says DBS managing director Colin Ferguson. "It was a great success."
DBS is now extending its offer from officebased systems, to bring the vehicle into the communication web, through a service called DBS Mobile Still in its infancy, this system uses PRA technology to relay information between the vehicle and the traffic office to improve the efficiency, traceability and management of the fleet.
CM Verdict
For those who haven't already embraced telematics the message from Grant Thornton should be a stark wake-up call -and let's face it, if there's an opportunity to improve profitability then you can't afford to ignore it.
For those who are already fully compliant, your main concern should be ensuring you don't get complacent and then left behind by the fast march of technology.
Telematics is changing the UK road transport industry and will offer tangible competitive efficiency advantages for those adopting the best solutions The biggest challenge is to keep up with the speed of that change. •