Driving Intelligent Data-Driven Decision-Making at Geotab Connect 2023 | Geotab UK Blog

Almost 60 million visitors flood into Orlando in Florida every year. Mostly, the Space Centre at Epcot or the sight and sensations of Disneyland draw in the crowds. Earlier this year, the bright lights were on the world of telematics.

More than 1,700 delegates, partners, customers and prospects flocked to see what Geotab had to say. After a three-year Covid-induced interruption, the Geotab Connect 2023 event was back with a record-breaking ban in January this year.

During the last Connect event, Geotab had 2 million connected vehicles. Now, just three years later, it has more than 3.2 million, tracking 50 billion data points daily across 100 million miles of daily travel on all types of vehicles. That 60% acceleration in customer numbers illustrates how we are moving from an analog to a digital world, from conventional carbon-based fuels to one with electric drive trains at its core.

“In the early days of Geotab, a few years after we were formed, I talked with a prospective customer and explained what we did. He looked at me, shook his head, and said ‘we’ll never spy on our employees’. Nothing I could say would convince him that we weren’t here to spy,” says company chief executive and founder Neil Cawse.

“Now, of course, everything has changed. We share everything. We share personal data across social media channels, we share information online, and companies share data to improve their efficiency. There is nothing that is not open to an element of shared intelligence and the growth of data has been exponential over the years.

Measuring performance

We also can’t ignore the impact of sustainability on everyday life. Tesla sold more than 1.3 million electric vehicles last year and every major motor manufacturer is switching production from tail-pipe emissions to electric vehicle technology. 

But sustainability is not just EVs. Telematics also allows companies and individuals to save up to 20% on the bottom-line fuel costs of their standard Internal Combustion Engined (ICE) vehicles too.

Telematics not only tracks journeys from A to B (and back) but can examine almost every aspect of vehicle performance; engine efficiency, tire pressures, temperature ranges, speed, idling, and even driver performance. 

“We have reached critical scale when it comes to data. Fleet managers can benchmark themselves against the most successful fleets in our business. We hear fleet managers’ problems every day and we can solve them using data. Our mission is to drive efficiency, safety, sustainability and operational efficiency across every business,” says Cawse.

But not measuring or monitoring a vehicle severely impacts the ability to get the best out of a fleet’s performance. There is almost nothing that can’t be measured. There is no aspect of the logistics industry that does not rely on telematics. And after all, you can’t manage what you can’t measure.

Safer roads, safer driving

Last year, Geotab was responsible for saving the lives of 120 people. They are the good news statistics of using telematics. Of course, until we are in a position to entirely eliminate accidents and road deaths from our roads, there will also be unfortunate statistics for the casualties on the road.

We know that the main cause of all road accidents is caused by speed and aggressive driving. But telematics has been shown to reduce accidents by 30%. If we factor in that accidents cost companies dearly - of course not just in time and money but also the human cost - then it is an obvious use case for adopting telematics.

One of Geotab’s largest customers estimates they have used telematics to save more than $300,000 in their annual insurance costs. Another cut their monthly speeding incidents 一 and the cost of paying fines 一 from 80 cases a month, down to less than 10 a month.

And of course, for those 120 people who we can point to where telematics saved their lives, the saving to them and their families is incalculable.

So ask yourselves, are you getting enough from your telematics? Geotab can point to instances where companies have saved 20% on fuel and operating costs. Our telematics solutions can save companies money on maintenance by spotting trouble before it occurs. It can also help to identify savings on route and journey planning schedules. And it keeps drivers, passengers and other road users safer on their day-to-day journeys.

That’s why, at Connect 2023, Geotab lit up the stage to demonstrate how the use of data and telematics can improve almost every aspect of fleet operations, from start to finish on every single journey.