Shannon Kyle has more than 20 years’ experience in compliance-related transport roles including stints at Linfox and Metcash.
Passionate about enhancing compliance and safety in the Australian transport industry, Shannon has been providing expert advice across the construction, transport and logistics industries on behalf of Teletrac Navman since 2017.
Prime Mover: The typical focus of transport telematics is around safety, compliance and operational efficiencies. Can telematics also be utilised in the decarbonisation process?
Shannon Kyle: The first thing we need to do as an industry is realise it’s not going away and we need to start reporting our CO² emissions because our customers are going to start asking for that information soon, if they aren’t already. The first step in measuring the current carbon footprint is being able to accurately measure distance travelled and fuel used by heavy vehicles and translating that into CO² reporting. I’m really keen on this because by measuring and reporting on what we currently do, moving forward we can demonstrate the improvements we make, and also make educated decisions when we start looking at mixed energy fleets.
PM: What data is needed to do those CO² calculations?
SK: It’s essentially what everyone’s already got if they’ve got tracking. You’re looking at the distance travelled by the vehicle, and if it can be linked into the actual CAN engine controller and getting fuel burn, that’s obviously the more accurate version. But you can still enter a manufacturer’s specifications or an indicative litres-per-kilometre figure and simply do the calculations which will give a good indication of where you are at and how much CO² is being released per trip. Then we can start identifying the areas which need improvement.
PM: Is this taking telematics to the next level?
SK: At Teletrac Navman our purpose is to simplify the complex so our customers can transform the way they work. A safe and compliant operation delivers a streamlined and efficient one through digitising work processes for the drivers and sustainability is becoming more and more part of our conversations.
PM: Teletrac Navman was involved in the TS24 annual transport survey of 500 operators globally. What were some of the results in relation to questions about mandatory CO² reporting?
SK: Sixty per cent of responders in Australia and New Zealand did not expect a mandate from a carbon management point of view, whereas in the USA almost 50 per cent of operators surveyed believed there would be some form of mandate in the future. The survey also produced some interesting statistics about how the industry is currently looking at alternative fuels. Over 60 per cent in the UK and the USA see a future with some alternative fuel mix in the fleet, yet in Australia and New Zealand only around 38 per cent of those surveyed considered alternative fuels to be a factor in their future.
PM: Even with the developments of EVs, internal combustion engines will likely be dominant for several years yet. What sort of contributions to lowering their emissions can telematics provide?
SK: Telematics can be used in ensuring we are measuring the progress and monitoring it. It might simply be through a bit of eco driving that we can demonstrate a significant reduction in CO² across a fleet. The data can help change driver behaviour. There is still a disconnect between the comparative prices of the vehicles, and by using tools like this it can help in the making of informed decisions when and where a change is needed. I believe a lot of EVs are probably purchased now using a big chunk out of the companies’ marketing budgets because the equivalent diesel ICE vehicle would be a lot less expensive.
PM: As things progress and fleets have a mix of perhaps electric, fuel cell and internal combustion engines powered by alternative fuels, will telematics still have an important place?
SK: Telematics can certainly contribute in the stepping-up of the decision-making process and which paths an operator is going to tread in the transition to decarbonisation. Not so much here yet, but certainly in Europe and the United States, we’ve got a tool specifically developed for electric vehicles which is about looking at the current duty cycles of vehicles in a fleet and then picking a vehicle type and a battery size and doing an analysis about whether all of those duty cycles will be met by that type of vehicle. Customising infrastructure has been a big challenge in the UK and has been something which has caught a number of people out. The Teletrac Navman Electric Vehicle Evaluator (EVE) tool looks at changing the vehicle type or even battery size and seeing what results you end up with. It will also assist in planning the infrastructure of the site by looking at capacity and load requirements and ensuring they are catered for.
PM: Can you provide an example?
SK: Identifying whether or not a mix of trickle or fast chargers is required. What we have found in Europe is in a lot of cases people just thought ‘I’ll put in all fast chargers, that’s going to be the best way of achieving what I need’ and later found they had overly invested in the infrastructure. By using these telematics tools to actually plan the transition to electric ensures fleets are not going to overcapitalise on equipment that’s not going to be fully utilised.
PM: Can the grid supply be taken into account?
SK: We can look at the maximum load demand and we look at the number and types of chargers at any particular time of day and what sort of load that will put on the electricity grid.
PM: What other benefits can be realised by involving telematics in the move to decarbonisation?
SK: Simplify the reporting is the key one. It won’t surprise anyone that some major supply chains and major multinationals will soon start wanting to see the amount of CO² involved to get a product onto the shelf, so every leg of the journey, not just that last leg and not just the linehaul leg, will be measured. Transport companies that can calculate and show the results for the freight which moves through their business are going to be a step ahead and will have an advantage similar to those who were smart enough to get into compliance programs like TruckSafe 20 years ago. Those who got in there early are now bedded in, and this will be no different. If you already have any sort of telematics solution you’ve got the distance travelled and you can capture some fuel data and with that you can provide CO² emission reporting to your customers right now.