Telematic tools: management but not only
By Frédéric Blin — October 11, 2021 — Flotauto.com
The purposes of using embedded telematics differ between companies: from the desire to improve the behavior of drivers behind the wheel to monitoring vehicle maintenance. But with the exploitation of data, telematics especially helps to refine the management of fleets and can also contribute to their greening.
According to the 2021 edition of the Arval Mobility Observatory's Fleet and Mobility Barometer, two-thirds of the companies surveyed indicated that they use “connected vehicles”. A significant proportion that could increase even more. Because over the years, service providers have continued to develop solutions to allow companies to target the actions they want to take through telematics.
Supporting employees
Within the Rugby Federation of the Pays de la Loire region, the equipment of the fleet with embedded telematics was thus done in connection with the development of a completely new activity: that of club technical advisers.
“We were chosen as the pilot league to recruit and set up these technical advisers who work with clubs in the Pays de la Loire region”, recalls Jean-Jacques Diez, member of the board of directors of the Pays de la Loire Rugby League.
For their activity, these technical advisers were of course provided with vehicles, with a fleet of nine Kangoo and Clio two seats financed by rental.
For the managers of this regional federation, the question of monitoring these staff when this park was started up was immediately raised. “We were confronted with the reality of employees left to their own devices, alone on the roads. It seemed important to us to support them”, justifies Jean-Jacques Diez.
It is to Optimum Automotive Group and its Mapping Control tool that this sports organization decided to turn to to carry out this mission. Unfamiliar with these tools, Jean-Jacques Diez focused above all on the availability of the service provider's teams to help him with the installation.
“We consulted several service providers. What led me to Optimum Automotive Group was the contact with the sales representative who is nearby. It can answer my questions and provide solutions quickly when I encounter difficulties with the application. Each time, he took care of it as soon as possible,” says Jean-Jacques Diez.
The nine vehicles of the technical advisers, financed by lease, have now been equipped with telematics for four years.
The issue of eco-driving
Jean-Jacques Diez consults the tool once a month to check all the data related to the fleet. “I also regularly check that the box is working properly,” adds this manager.
Note that the device was also used at the beginning of its operation in order to improve eco-driving behaviors. But this use has not been thorough.
“This meant comparing real consumption with the manufacturer's consumption indications. We could therefore only provide indications on the performance of drivers, but quite inaccurate considering the different conditions of use. But it can be useful for reminders about driving,” believes Jean-Jacques Diez on this point.
The situation is quite similar for the Toulouse University Hospital where, until now, the monitoring of driving behavior has not extended to eco-driving.
“We do not have any specific management actions on this theme through our Kuantic telematics tool. But for this follow-up, we are going to provide a solution for the fleet of heavy vehicles that we are going to renew in 2022 and which represents 50% of our fuel bill,” anticipates Matthieu Fleureau, hotel and logistics equipment director.
At the beginning of 2022, the first renewed heavy vehicles will thus be equipped with a telematic device.
The fleet of this university hospital center has 200 vehicles of all types, with around 150 light vehicles and the rest in business vehicles: ambulances or heavy vehicles.
For the rest of CHU drivers, monitoring driving behavior is not yet current, but it is in the near future.
“With our service provider who is looking to develop its customer support, we are in the process of making the information collected from the boxes more clear. Our objectives are to benefit from a more detailed analysis of driving behaviors and to identify the actions to be taken,” projects Matthieu Fleureau.
For the Toulouse University Hospital, using telematics is also intended to improve the monitoring of vehicle maintenance.
“Until now, our fleet only stayed new for a short time; once there were one or two collisions, drivers stopped taking care of the vehicles. Now, we ask that problems be systematically reported so that we can intervene,” explains Matthieu Fleureau.
The arrival of telematics also offered the opportunity to build, between the various hospital departments and the fleet management team, “interface contracts”: “These documents describe the commitments we make on the maintenance and maintenance of vehicles, and what we ask drivers for their use”, details Matthieu Fleureau.
For their part, thanks to telematics, drivers benefit from better monitored vehicles “to take them for revision or to plan their recovery, and the behaviors of these drivers are more supervised”, he adds.
For the Rhône-Alpes branch of SNEF Telecom, a specialist in telecommunications infrastructures, the installation of telematics in 2019 also aimed to have a tool in order to monitor the use of vehicles on a daily basis.
“For example, we wanted to receive an alert in case of failure”, indicates Julien Boussemart, head of the SNEF Telecom agency in Bron (69).
The fleet of this subsidiary of the SNEF Group is divided into two categories: service vehicles, driven by technical agents to managers, and commercial vehicles used by technicians in the field.
Kuantic's telematics tool is used for this entire fleet.
“Today, around 90% of the 90 vehicles are equipped with it, the remaining 10% will be returned this year”, continues Julien Boussemart.
The road safety trail
This device showed its effectiveness very quickly, as early as the year following its installation at SNEF Telecom.
“In 2020, we suffered two disasters for which we received an alert immediately, even before the employees called us”, reports Julien Boussemart.
With the data reported by the boxes, this manager was also able to better understand the conditions of these accidents a posteriori.
“By analyzing the data with Axodel, we understood the circumstances, especially the role of speed,” he adds.
This observation then led to the launch of training measures for the employees concerned.
At the Toulouse University Hospital, the park manager, by relying on the telematic tool, can more easily find the perpetrators of traffic violations, something that the fleet management team at this hospital center had a lot of trouble doing until now.
At the same time, the geolocation is not used to track the movements of hospital staff.
“But in retrospect, we benefit fromalerts on vehicles leaving the department. We also correlate trips with missions to ensure that there is a justification,” describes Matthieu Fleureau.
All in all, there are few excesses.
“Fuel consumption data is also correlated with fuel expenses to ensure that fuel cards are used exclusively for business needs,” he continues.
Report reliable data
The teams at La Forézienne, an Eiffage subsidiary specializing in earthmoving, do not similarly exploit any of the functions of geolocation of WeNow's telematics tool for its vehicles.
“It was not our aim in looking for this provider”, confirms Benoît Klein.
For the geolocation, we are already working with a service provider for our construction vehicles.
Moreover, unlike the devices that exploit the geolocation, very little information from the boxes is sent directly to the fleet manager.
The only data collected by this manager is related to overall consumption and the mileages covered by the fleet as a whole.
Data useful for fleet management and that Benoît Klein considers more reliable than that of reports from fuel cards.
A management tool
The La Forézienne fleet has 165 vehicles all allocated: vans and Kangoo vans, and company vehicles.
In early 2021, this company started equipping its fleet with the WeNow system, which is now present in all vehicles.
Because it is especially on the side of fleet management that a company can take advantage of telematics feedback, particularly thanks to the data collected on mileages.
At SNEF Telecom, this data collection involves both rented and purchased vehicles, half of the fleet being shared between these two financing methods.
“With telematics, I can get the mileages without having to call the drivers,” notes Julien Boussemart.
Among other things, this information is useful for optimizing the company's rental contracts.
Julien Boussemart, who carries out a quarterly mileage report, can thus, if necessary, make substitutions between the most and the least mileage vehicles in his fleet.
Readjust rental contracts
For the Toulouse University Hospital, mileage data is also important.
“Telematics allows us to better match the needs of the fleet with the consumption and real use of vehicles,” says Matthieu Fleureau.
“This makes it possible to reduce the number of vehicles, especially at the end of the contract or at the end of the rental. We can decide to change our fleet,” he adds.
The financial gain associated with this better control of the fleet is mainly reflected in the reduction of maintenance and maintenance costs.
Ecological compliance
Telematics is also a tool to support the energy transition of fleets.
“For the renewal, we will direct our choices towards cleaner engines such as hybrids or electric vehicles,” explains Matthieu Fleureau.
This evolution is part of a global sustainable mobility policy led by the Toulouse University Hospital.
For La Forézienne, telematics also contributes to the measurement of the carbon footprint.
“Our objective is to reduce the environmental impact of our fleet and consumption data is a key indicator to pilot this approach”, concludes Benoît Klein.
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