Risk Revolution

Connected vehicle and asset solutions telematics leader, Geotab, has held its annual conference, known as Geotab Connect in Orlando, Florida.

Launched under the theme ‘Defining the Future of Connected Vehicles’, the three-day event balanced several transport industry keynote presentations with sessions that covered safety, compliance, database mastery, maximising uptime, vehicle utilisation, hardware, data access and future initiatives.

A headline appearance was made by entertainer and mentalist Oz Pearlman. To help fleets better control rising operational costs, Geotab announced the launch of new maintenance tools to assist managers predict vehicle issues and streamline repairs.

These latest products, Work Order Management and Fault Code Enrichment, offered within the Geotab Maintenance Center, would, according to Geotab, have particular relevance for Australian fleet managers, with 57 per cent of those surveyed last year identifying running costs reductions as their top priority, a seismic increase from 42 per cent of respondents in 2022.

Indeed, reducing downtime and managing maintenance costs more effectively has placed added emphasis on regular vehicle maintenance and the adoption of predictive maintenance technologies.

“Fleet maintenance is a major cost driver, and unexpected breakdowns can significantly impact operations,” says Sabina Martin, Geotab Vice President of Product Management. Geotab has around 4.7 million connected vehicles globally.

Not unlike North America, compliance was presently recognised as one the biggest considerations for customers working in Australia.

In an interview he gave during Geotab Connect, David Brown APAC Associate Vice President Sales at Geotab, cited government, resources and heavy commercial transport as the three verticals it was primarily focused on locally this year and moving forward.

“There are strong similarities between what we have done in North America and what we are implementing in Australia,” he told Ashley Grogan.

“We approach heavy trucking from multiple angles—enhancing ease of use from a consumer perspective, ensuring compliance with fatigue management and electronic work diaries, and driving productivity and cost savings through technology.”

For the moment there are some barriers to what Geotab is trying to achieve in Australia mainly from independent businesses more resistant to change.

But adoption among major fleets, according to David, is strong.

“Implementing the technology is one thing, but knowing how to use it effectively and make actionable decisions is another challenge,” he says.

“In my opinion, there is a grey area in telematics where a huge amount of data is collected, but the real question is: how can it be used quickly and effectively?”

Speaking at a media scrum at the event, Neil Cawse, Founder, President and CEO of Geotab pointed to what he described as a revolution occurring in risk analytics and product integration.

“It’s actually starting in commercial, and I think it’s going to spread to [the] consumer,” he says.

“Really, what the revolution does is show you do not get accurate enough data from an app on a phone or from basic telematics in a regular consumer’s vehicle. But in a commercial vehicle, there is a high incentive to deploy advanced telematics like Geotab and so, the quality and level of data that we have to feed the models that allow us to do the benchmarking around safety are game-changing. There is no other area where we can get it, that anybody can get access to this high level and high quality of data.”

There was now scientific proof, according to Neil, from data Geotab was able to glean across categories such as speeds exceeding the legal limit and narrow vehicle proximity in acceptable safe following distances that the risk for operators was increased exponentially.

“I can now take real steps towards reducing risk, as opposed to hypothetical, because we can test it on all the data,” he says. “It’s exciting.”