Eliminate the Blind Spots in Your Fleet with Telematics

In the B2B world, ROI is typically the go-to metric for helping to assess potential profitability, and in the fleet sector, total cost of ownership (or TCO) is often the baseline for measuring the effectiveness of your various fleet strategies. These benchmarks are traditionally tied to some sort of action; perhaps its the introduction of a new customer relationship management (CRM) platform or a potential shift in strategic focus. How do changes like these influence your ROI or TCO?

These are foundational business principles we’re all familiar with but what happens if you merely continue to settle for the status quo? How do you measure the cost ramifications of complacency?

Today, a growing number of organizations are looking at COI – Cost of Inaction – as a way to assess the impact of simply maintaining the status quo. But for fleet professionals, the only thing worse than failing to improve or evolve your operating strategy is being unware of the pain points hiding in your fleet’s blind spots; and this is precisely where telematics can begin to change the conversation.

Let’s face it, you can’t manage what you don’t know, and in the midst of unprecedented economic uncertainty you cannot afford to miss an opportunity for improvement. A crucial first step towards achieving transparency and beginning to eliminate the blind spots in your fleet is a robust telematics strategy.

A telematics solution provides insight into precisely how your fleet is performing in real time and will help to highlight areas where costs seem to be rising. This transparency will empower you to dig deeper to determine the root cause of these cost drivers, and you can begin to overcome challenges that have a real impact on your business’ profitability and productivity. And when you combine this data with a powerful analytics program, you can go beyond simple exception management and begin to predict and prevent the previously-hidden cost drivers within your fleet.

To help bring this into focus, here’s an example of how telematics can help you answer the why behind rising accident costs.

For most savvy fleet operators, a spike in accident costs raises an immediate red flag, but often these rising costs lead to more questions than answer.

When you look at the metrics – costs, accident rates, productivity, revenue, etc. – its clear there’s a problem but for most, without the use of telematics, the solution to this pain point will likely remain hidden in your blind spot. However, with a comprehensive telematics and analytics program, you’ll be empowered to uncover the why.

Perhaps a particular segment of drivers is high-risk behind the wheel – speeding, rapid acceleration, harsh braking, etc. Through the use of telematics and advanced analytics, these incidents of aggressive driving bubble to the surface. With this insight, you’re able to identify the true root cause of this growing problem and you can prescribe corrective training to begin eliminating unnecessary risk and prevent future accidents.

If you continue to simply settle for the status quo when it comes to your drivers’ performance, what does this Cost of Inaction mean to your business?

Telematics’ role as a catalyst for change is certainly undeniable, and when you look at a potential telematics strategy through the lens of COI, the picture quickly becomes much clearer, particularly for stakeholders who may not be familiar with fleet intricacies. It’s no longer about trying to justify the expense of a telematics program by trying to quantify the potential ROI – which is often easier said than done. It’s now about what the continued complacency is really costing your business.

Ready to get connected? Let Holman help you plug into your fleet data with a telematics solution that works for your business and be sure to subscribe to our Morning Brake newsletter which highlights the latest industry trends and projections to help you stay ahead of the curve.