Overlooked Financial Benefits of Fleet Telematics

It’s no question that most fleet managers invest in telematics as a way to reduce fuel waste. After all, the majority of a fleet’s costs go to gas stations, so targeting fuel efficiency is a prudent strategy. However, focusing solely on the potential of telematics to reduce fuel costs takes the other benefits of telematics for granted. Getting the full value out of a telematics system means leveraging all of its benefits to improve the performance of the fleet. This summary of the overlooked perks of fleet telematics can help you get the most out of one of your fleet’s most versatile resource.

Fleet safety pays dividends
Automotive Fleet pointed out that a safe fleet is a cost-effective fleet. By using telematics to minimize dangers on the road for drivers, your company also eliminates scenarios that result in idle drivers and additional costs. Telematics data is great for identifying unsafe driving patterns in drivers, such as excessive speeding and overbraking. This information can be leveraged to help drivers avoid accidents, alleviating the costs of towing and repairs. Avoiding accidents also helps to eliminate deliveries lost to delays caused by a collision.

Telematics data is so useful for evaluating and correcting driver behavior that insurance companies have begun to offer discounts for fleet companies that agree to equip their vehicles with telematics gear. In this way telematics provides another potential cost-saving benefit for your fleet, allowing your company to reduce accidents and insurance payments with a single purchase.

Data allows for pinpoint maintenance schedules
Helping drivers to avoid accidents is just one way that your fleet can use telematics to keep repair costs to a minimum. Data collected by telematics systems can also be used to develop custom maintenance schedules for each vehicle. After all, maintenance schedules recommended by auto-mechanics are merely a rule of thumb. The information collected by advanced telematics can identify when and where performance issues arise in a fleet vehicle. Your in-house maintenance team can interpret this data to determine when a fleet vehicle may need an oil change, new braking pads or a filter swap. By basing repairs off telematics data instead of a generic maintenance schedule, your fleet is able to pay for maintenance more efficiently.

Less idling leads to better performance
Idle time is one of your fleet’s biggest problems. Not only does idle engine activity burn through fuel, but every minute spent by drivers on the side of the road cuts into your company’s profit margins. Thankfully, telematics technology can be used as a way to stop your drivers from making unnecessary stops. GPS technology, for example, makes it easier for dispatch to spot your drivers spending too much time off the job. Comparing fuel consumption against miles driven is another way of identifying when idle engine activity is cutting into performance. By cutting down idle time, HDT Trucking Info noted that companies can save thousands of dollars each month.

Extra accountability adds value to other resources
Fleet telematics is easy to use in conjunction with multiple accountability strategies, and data collected can actually improve the effectiveness of other fleet tools. Fleet card reports, for instance, can be cross-referenced with fuel-consumption and distance numbers to ensure that money spent on a fleet card goes straight into the gas tank. The data provided by telematics systems can also be used to recognize drivers when they meet company performance standards, making it easy for your fleet to implement incentives for employees.