By now, many fleets have seen how telematics can save a fleet time, money, and injuries. In a Work Truck Truck Chat video, Steve Wells, co-founder and CRO for ClearPathGPS, discussed recent telematics trends, benefits, and more.

Tracking Trends

“The cost of the devices and implementing this technology has gotten a lot less expensive. As a result, there's much greater adoption, even in smaller fleets,” he explained.

He also said more recently, he’s seen more sophisticated questions coming from customers. Now, they are wanting to do more with the data they are collecting, and expect more out of GPS devices to give them insight into their business.

“They don’t just want to see a dot on a map; they want that data to flow throughout their organization and give them meaningful insights they can take action on,” he said.

Another trend is customers have been asking more from vendors in terms of how to best use the data they collect. They don’t just want vendors to simply provide technology - they also want someone who can help them interpret data or make real- world decisions and educate them on how to manage their businesses better with it.

4G Transition Impacts

To prepare for the upcoming shift from a 4G to 5G network, fleet managers must be proactive and work together with their telematics providers to make sure it’s a non-issue.

“For the day-to-day operator, they don't want to be bothered by this, so they need to search for a vendor that will work with them to make it easy,” he said.

Fighting Through COVID-19

The dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic was a deer-in-the-headlights moment for many fleet managers. Wells said the vast majority of ClearPathGPS clients are a part of the essential services market, such as plumbers, HVAC, and construction.

“In many of those cases, while they all had hold-your-breath moments, we made sure we were partnering with them and if anybody needed billing relief or things like that to make sure they got through a tough patch, we were there for them, because we knew they'd be back,” he explained.

Wells said he’s seeing a lot of his clients adding trucks to their fleets now, which shows signs of a return to business-as-usual.

Importance of Integration

As more fleet managers are looking to get the most out of their telematics data, ClearPathGPS has partnered with companies like Fleetio and ServiceTitan to integrate data and provide value-added services flowing through those systems. With ClearPathGPS’ open API, it’s done integrations with many other systems, sometimes under unique circumstances. This has been driven by a thirst for data to be actionable and usable across an organization

Mitigating Risk to Save Lives and the Bottom Line

The big three areas fleet managers look for in their telematics solution are cutting costs, lowering risk, and protecting their assets. Dashcams have also become more prevalent, especially in a sea of rising insurance premiums.

“Fleet managers want to make sure they are not subject to catastrophic insurance premium rises because of an accident or unsafe driving behavior that results in some liability,” Wells said.

He told the story of a large lawn care company in Florida that did a two-year analysis on the benefits of their GPS tracking system. They saw they had saved $160,000 over that period.

“They said they were able to turn around and buy new trucks for a number of their managers. This is a tangible benefit for the teams that were leveraging data to run a better operation,” he said.