You might be familiar with GPS tracking software: A tool which helps you monitor your vehicles on the road in real time, enabling you to see what your drivers are up to while at work and keeping you on top of your field operations. But, did you also know about telematics: A technology that helps you get the best out of vehicle tracking.
A telematics system can help you save on fuel, maintenance and compliance costs, improve productivity and efficiency, and ensure reliable navigation for your drivers.
Sounds confusing? Let’s look in more detail at what telematics is, the benefits it offers, and what it has got to do with GPS programs.
What Is a Telematics System?
Technically, telematics in cars is the communication of information between vehicles and a third party. It involves using information or data collected from a group or network of connected vehicles to keep you informed about where your vehicles are, what your drivers are doing, what’s costing you, and how you can work more efficiently.
What Kind of Data Does Telematics Provide?
A car telematics system provides hundreds of insights. Here are just a few of them:
- The real-time location of vehicles
- Traffic congestion on the road network
- How long a vehicle has been stationary
- The current and past speeds of vehicles
- The duration of a journey
- The mileage
- The fuel usage
- The average response time
- Vehicle usage in and out of office hours
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The Connection Between GPS and Telematics
Businesses often get confused about the connection between GPS and telematics. A fleet telematics software uses tracking devices to transmit crucial data about your vehicles, while a GPS tool is used as a part of vehicle telematics solution. So, they are connected and not competing systems.
In short, telematics technology is the driving force behind vehicle tracking systems to improve efficiency and reduce expenses.
How Does Telematics Software Benefit Your Business?
Here’s a quick rundown of how telematics can help your business reach greater heights:
- Telematics solutions come up with a clear dashboard of everything, including the miles driven to the average trip gas cost, which will help you identify how much you’re currently spending so that you can take the necessary measures to control your fuel expenses.
- A telematics GPS tool comes with a geofence alerts feature that informs you in real-time whenever a driver is speeding or tailgating other vehicles or when a vehicle is idling for too long. You can then immediately communicate with the driver to rectify the behavior and protect your business from legal hassles and unnecessary gas bills. Also, the alerts feature ensures that you don’t need to stare at the computer, watching driver or vehicle activities on the road. So, you can invest the saved hours more productively.
- The data provided by GPS telematics helps you improve driver behavior and safety on the road for which insurance companies will reward you with lower premiums. This adds up to even bigger savings for your business.
- Telematics navigation helps you identify the most fuel efficient route to a desired location so that you can plan well-optimized routes. This, in turn, reduces labor and fuel expenses as your drivers or field reps won’t waste time and money due to traffic jams, left turns or taking inefficient routes.
- A telematics system continuously records all your vehicle data. This means that you don’t need to go through the stress and hassle of calculating those insights and expenditures manually once every year or so. Also, recording historical data helps you with speeding or accident claims. Such evidence can prove invaluable in court and may help you cut down on legal expenses.
- Automotive telematics also helps you make your customers happy as you’re able to provide them with better delivery estimates and can ensure your drivers always show up on time. You can even allow the customers to track the status of their shipments with the technology.
- The best route planners come with a telematics gateway feature that provides you with the ability to integrate a GPS tracker with leading telematics vendors so that you can track your existing vehicles on a map in the route planner. A multiple destination route planner will also automatically send and synchronize your routes with every connected vendor in your account. Plus, the system will automatically analyze and archive all the GPS data received from your connected account.
So, are you clear about what telematics technology is or do you have any questions? Please feel free to leave your comments below.
Also, here are three quick questions for you to ensure that you understood all the points of telematics software and vehicle tracking laid out in this article:
- What is telematics?
- How is telematics connected with vehicle location tracking?
- How can auto telematics help you control your fuel expenses?
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