Fleet FYIs: A Podcast by Utilimarc

OEM or After-Market: Which telematics solution is best for your fleet? | Utilimarc Fleet FYIs

September 16, 2022 Utilimarc Season 3 Episode 29
Fleet FYIs: A Podcast by Utilimarc
OEM or After-Market: Which telematics solution is best for your fleet? | Utilimarc Fleet FYIs
Show Notes Transcript

Show notes for today's episode can be found at: https://www.utilimarc.com/blog

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Gretchen Reese (00:12):

Hey there. Welcome to the Fleet FYIs podcast, the weekly podcast by Utilimarc that reveals how you can make the most of your data for smarter fleet management. My name is Gretchen, and every week you'll hear from me or some of the industry's finest in candid conversations that will not only shed some light on over two decades worth of fleet data insights, but also some of the industry's hottest talking points and key metric analysis with the aim to help you better understand your fleet from every angle.

(00:52):

But before we begin, if this is the first time you've heard our show, thanks for stopping by. I'm so glad you decided to come along for the ride with us, but I've got a quick favor to ask you. Once you finish today's episode, if you could take a few minutes to leave us a review on your favorite podcasting platform, we would really appreciate it. Give us a rating, five stars, I hope, or tell us what you liked or leave us a comment or a question about what you've heard in today's episode. If we haven't yet covered a topic that you're interested in hearing more about, let us know. We would be happy to go over it in detail in a later show.

(01:34):

Hello, everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Fleet FYIs podcast. I'm so excited to be back today in talking to you about a topic that goes back into the technology roots of this podcast. I wanted to bring us back to the discussion surrounding telematics. So we are talking about OEM or aftermarket telematics, and more specifically, which telematics solution could potentially be best for your fleet. So let me paint a picture for you here. In an age where vehicles are smarter and more interconnected than ever, fleet managers are able to leverage their data systems to improve fleet efficiency and their performance overall. Before the creation of telematics systems, a lot of fleet managers could have potentially questioned the importance of having data collecting technology in their vehicles. Maybe a little bit of that big brother feel that some of us were a little concerned about.

(02:31):

But decades later, data has become a critical element of effective fleet management strategies. And I think most of us at this point are super on board with that whole movement, I guess, is what you could call it, this data gathering movement and the devices that come along with it. And whilst there are several different data sources that a fleet manager might work with on a regular basis or any given day, telematics being one, but FMIS, fuel data, you name it, it's there. Telematics is one essential management tool for so many commercial and so many government fleets. The tool itself provides current information. For those of you that are a little bit less familiar with the technology, it provides current information and alerts like real-time vehicle location and routing, vehicle speed, things like harsh acceleration and harsh breaking events, fuel consumption and idling, engine and battery, health and diagnostics.

(03:30):

And the thing is, is whether your chosen solution comes already embedded from the manufacturer, so this is like the four telematics that had launched a few years ago, or is an added aftermarket to your vehicles, Geotab being a good example here too, telematics helps fleet managers to monitor and understand their fleet assets as long as they're being used and driven, and also, to that point, which aren't being used and driven. But the question is, is there a difference between the two options, aftermarket and OEM? Well, let's take a closer look at each.

(04:15):

Let's get started delving into hardware telematics, or what also could be called third party or those aftermarket telematics solutions like we were mentioning earlier. Now, historically, fleets who have wanted to integrate telematics solutions have used these third party hardware telematics. It's an aftermarket solution that's been around for decades. And today, it is extremely appealing to managers who don't plan on replacing their vehicle soon, but they want to add the technology into their existing fleet straight away. In this case, a small telematics device is set up within the vehicle cab and plugged into the OB2 or CAN, CAN bus port. And once installed, all vehicles regardless of make or model become connected. Sounds pretty simple, right? The device can automatically start collecting information and streams it to a third party platform, like Utilimarc's business intelligence platform, for example, for fleet managers to access remotely or whichever data management system that you use.

(05:38):

Now, there's a few downsides for opting for an aftermarket solution though, just to keep in mind and playing devil's advocate here. Coordinating the device installation for hundreds or thousands of vehicles can result in excessive downtime and delays. This is just something to be aware of if you're undertaking a full installation process. And even a few hours out of service for each vehicle can result in substantial profit loss and inefficiency for an organization. Additionally, not all telematics technologies are brand agnostic, meaning that they wouldn't work with all of your vehicles regardless of their manufacturer. Now, there are some aftermarket telematics solutions that will do this, but it obviously will take a little bit of research and potentially even a couple of pilots just to see which brand of aftermarket telematics could work best for your fleet, your management style, and the type of data that you're actually looking to collect.

(06:31):

Now, the second piece of this is OEM telematics, or original equipment manufactured telematics. I know we all know what OEMs are on this show, but just in case. Alternatively, fleets that are phasing out these older assets that we were talking about in the previous section, and just for clarification, aftermarket telematics are not just for older assets, but they are a benefit if you don't plan on replacing your vehicles anytime soon, but fleets that are phasing out these older assets can actually consider acquiring vehicles with telematics that are already installed. So like I mentioned before, major manufacturers, Ford being one of them, BMW being another, are beginning to offer vehicles with factory embedded telematics. This means there's no vehicle downtime at all because vehicles are connected from the get-go and ready to go right off of the lot.

(07:20):

With the software being designed by the vehicle manufacturer, OEM telematics can also offer a deeper, more dynamic view into fleet data. Fleet managers could potentially gain access to more vehicle specific information, whereas a third party software might not have the same capability. One thing to know though is that this newer technology still has both pros and cons like an aftermarket device would. For example, mixed fleets, OEM telematics can seem a little bit unfeasible. Managers could receive data across multiple platforms coming from both our OEM and aftermarket telematics systems. And the data, when it's sent to your fleet management system, it might not be standardized. So for example, an OEM device could ping every 30 seconds whilst an aftermarket could ping every 15 seconds. And you could potentially be left with inaccurate data streams that aren't standardized and they're hard to report off of that mix together. I'm not saying that happens every single time, but it is a potential thing to make sure that you keep an eye out for.

(08:22):

And the thing is, is that this could potentially be counterproductive for a manager truly looking to unify their fleet assets and their data in one place. But that's another story for another day, which we can go into ano in a future episode if you would be interested in hearing more about it. Make sure you let me know after the show's over. But what I really want to stress to you guys today is that it always will take a little bit of research. And like I said, if you have the ability to, if you have the financial feasibility to undergo a pilot or test which market devices, whether it's factory telematics or it's aftermarket telematics, really try and test which type of device is best for your fleet if you're trying to install a telematics device or a data gathering device to your vehicles to be able to learn more about them in full.

(09:41):

Ultimately, whichever telematics solution works best for your fleet will collect invaluable data and insights from your day-to-day operations, from productivity to sustainability to safety, telematics gives you a really good look at what's going on inside of your fleet organization at all times. You'll be able to understand key metrics in these areas, and it's so much more essential for effective fleet management now more than ever because data truly is king. A little bit cliche, but it's true. For fleet managers looking to leverage this data even further, if you'd like a little bit of help in that department, Utilimarc's business intelligence platform can integrate telematics regardless of type, very data agnostic with all other data sources in one unified space. And this crossover of sources makes for even richer data insights and a more comprehensive understanding for your fleet performance. But again, more on that in another episode.

(10:37):

I'm curious to hear from you guys though, are you interested in learning more about telematics? Do you have OEM telematics in your fleet aftermarket solutions? Tell me what type of telematics devices do you have? Do you like them? What type of data were you looking to gather from them initially, aside from just your typical drive times and geo zones before you installed them? I want to know all of the things. You can let me know by sending me an email. Tag me on LinkedIn. You can use the hashtag #UtilimarcFleetFYIs, or you can even send me carrier pigeon if you feel like it, we all know I'd love that. Anyways, that is all for me for this Friday. I will chat to you all again next week. I'm looking forward to it. Ciao.

(11:42):

Hey there. I think this is the time that I should cue the virtual high five, because you've just finished listening to another episode of the Fleet FYIs podcast. If you're already wanting more content, head over to utilimarc.com, which is Utilimarc with a C, U-T-I-L-I-M-A-R-C.com for this episode's show notes and extra insights coming straight from our analyst to you. That's all from me this week, so until next time, I'll catch you later.