What is Telematics?

Telematics is a system that marries information technology with telecommunications, or the long-distance transmission of computerized information. It has evolved over the years and narrowly associates with GPS tracking or fleet telematics.

A device is installed inside a vehicle, which then uses cellular networks to transmit data back to servers either hosted by the fleet telematics provider, or a third-party cloud server. The data stored in the cloud makes the information available to access from any device with an internet connection.

The GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System), a network of satellites that help triangulate the location of a device, is what makes all of this possible.

Now that you are up to speed on what telematics is, the rest of this article will discuss what fleet telematics does and how it can be beneficial to implement a solution to your operational workflow.

What Fleet Telematics Does

Fleet telematics empowers you with a solution to solve your unique business challenges.

The most common of these challenges is simply knowing where your vehicles and equipment are at all times. There are numerous examples of fleet telematics acting as a theft deterrent for companies and saving them thousands of dollars. The simple benefit of location information is the origin of fleet telematics. The evolution of its return on investment has formed over the years to help with more strategic initiatives such as safety.

If you approach fleet telematics from a strategic mindset like a safety initiative or becoming a safer and more responsible fleet, then you can begin thinking about how to do that through a fleet telematics lens with metrics such as reducing the number of accidents, speeding instances, harsh acceleration, and deceleration, etc.

Here are a few more examples of areas that fleet telematics can benefit your business:

Third Level Telematics

Now that you understand how fleet telematics works and some of the information it can provide, you can start to think about some of the business challenges you may be facing like high fuel costs, safety initiatives, etc. “Third Level Telematics,” discusses why it’s important to broach fleet telematics with a strategic mindset and the innovative ways in which companies are using the technology today.