Telematics: Effective Tracking Keeps Fleets on Track

With the latest advances in telematics technology today, a number of cost-effective solutions are available to help fleets boost productivity, address driver safety, and ensure fleet operations run as efficiently as possible - all while also keeping tabs on emissions to help reduce companies' carbon footprints.

The following are just a few of the latest telematics products available.

GPS Insight

Product highlights: Posted speed limit reporting, hierarchy capabilities, dashboard interface, mobile device interface, 3-year vehicle history, 30 powerful reports, 8 alert types which can be combined, Google Earth integration.

GPS Insight offers several different hardware options and customizes technology and enhancements to suit fleet needs. Fleets can gain insight into all aspects of their operations, including current location, unlimited history, engine diagnostics, routing, reports, alerts, and messaging.

GPS Insight also offers a new Hierarchy Editor capability, which allows customers to define multiple organizational, functional, or geographic hierarchies and assign vehicles, drivers, users, and landmarks. The new function enables easier ad-hoc reporting and administration for large fleets, with the ability to customize search criteria (i.e. "all Southwest delivery or parts vehicles except for Tucson, excluding Ford F-150s and supervisor's vehicles").

Additionally, the new function eliminates the need for multiple scheduled reports, making it possible to send one report to all individuals assigned at each geographic branch.

GEOTAB

Product highlights: Unlocked Microsoft Excel reports, customizable to meet fleet-specific needs.

Geotab telematics is designed to help customers reduce the operating costs of fleet operations by alerting maintenance staff of priority vehicles for repair, notification of battery voltages, and location through the use of a daily heartbeat that locates all assets. Under-used assets can be effectively identified to reduce the number of spare vehicles or assist in the decision making when acquiring new vehicles.

Geotab recently launched its latest innovation for 2010: unlocked Microsoft Excel reports easily customized with graphs, then Web-hosted and shared with others. Users can fully extend telematics data to meet their unique needs while eliminating time spent reproducing important reports and graphs. Personally tailored scorecards, graphs, and reports mean customers interact with Geotab telematics data as simply as possible to access relevant results.

EJ Ward

Product highlights: Automated fuel/fluid management accountability, automatic vehicle location (AVL) asset tracking, complete vehicle diagnostics, and tire pressure management programs.

Ward's Fleet Asset Management Systems (FAMS) integrates several systems, which include automated fluid management, GPS-based asset tracking, tire pressure management, and Enterprise Application System Integration.

Ward partners with fleets to achieve operational excellence through advanced telematics technology for automated fuel/fluid management accountability, telematic services using GPS technology for AVL asset tracking, complete vehicle diagnostics, and tire pressure management programs.  

Ward FAMS focuses on fleet optimization, fleet utilization, fleet risk management, green fleet management, and fleet expense control. With an advanced, user-friendly system, Ward FAMS is installed in more than 1 million vehicles in thousands of locations across the country.