Geotab Australia’s leaders come together to talk trucks, taxes and technology in Brisbane

Geotab Australia’s leaders come together to talk trucks, taxes and technology in Brisbane 

Trucks, taxes and tech were at the top of the agenda at Geotab’s recent annual Australia-New Zealand partner summit in Brisbane. 

The event brought together Geotab’s regional leaders with key team members and partners from across Australia and New Zealand to present new product offerings, discuss upcoming releases and plan an exciting new strategy for the year ahead.   

A particularly popular session featured an in-depth analysis of Geotab’s partnership with KPMG. This collaboration enables many customers to reclaim enough money through the government’s Fuel Tax Credit (FTC) entitlement scheme to cover the cost of their telematics solutions.

“Every year, we engage with our partners by bringing everyone together to reflect on the past year and to focus on future strategies,” said David Brown, Associate Vice President for Geotab APAC.  

Other discussions touched on local market conditions, the 3G shutdown and Geotab’s new approach to heavy vehicles, among other topics.

The Australian market and 3G shutdown

Sean Killen, Geotab’s Vice President of Emerging Markets (a segment that includes Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America) says Australia is already a mature telematics market but is experiencing significant changes.  

“It's undergoing an interesting transition currently with the Telstra 3G shutdown. A lot of people have had the first version of telematics here. What the 3G shutdown is forcing them to do is make a choice on the next generation of telematics,” he said.

Mark Bucknall, Associate Vice President of Business Development, Asia Pacific highlighted the opportunity for partners to leverage Geotab’s expanding ecosystem and its numerous benefits. 

“For me, using data and an ecosystem gives you an opportunity to combine disparate sources of information and disparate pieces of equipment into a central lens that helps you look at what you're trying to achieve with electrification, with the ecosystem, with the heart and soul of your fleet,” he said.  

The future of heavy vehicles

The market for heavy vehicles in Australia was another key topic at the summit. In North America, Geotab has over 900,000 trucks online and strong OEM (original equipment manufacturer) partnerships. However, Geotab is better known as a solution for light vehicle fleets in Australia. Andrew Hinze, Associate Vice President for heavy transport for Australia, hopes to change that perception. 

He says Geotab has a lot to offer heavy vehicle operators, who often operate with very slim margins and need to find efficiencies while ensuring compliance with a complex regulatory environment. 

“Transport operators need all the help that they can get, which is where we come into it, with telematics solutions not only driving efficiencies through that business, but allowing smaller transport operators to have a safer and compliant fleet,” he said. 

Fatigue compliance management systems

A key offer for our customers in Australia will be our integration with Logmaster Australia, a leading provider of Electronic Work Diary and fatigue compliance management systems for the trucking and transport industry in Australia. 

“One of the key initiatives we have been working on with Logmaster is introducing a single sign on the Logmaster App. It allows the drivers to seamlessly log in and toggle between two apps to ensure they can manage the fatigue regulations and stay safe on the road,” said Ezanne Soh, Geotab’s Product Manager, APAC for Geotab. 

Transforming Australia’s fleets

Heavy vehicles and digital transformation are key to Geotab’s efforts to win over new Australian customers. So too is Geotab’s ability to work closely with local enterprises to create customised solutions.

David Brown emphasised Geotab’s ability to transform businesses and expressed optimism about the year ahead. 

“It's not just about extolling the technology; it's about really working with them as a true partner to dissect their business and see where our solution and the value add fits in, to be able to give them the money to pay for the solution. So there's a lot of really exciting things coming for us. The future looks really positive,” he said. 

Click through to find out more about our solutions for heavy vehicles, including our electronic work diary.