Telematics Buying Guide

There are many hundreds of companies providing vehicle tracking and fleet management services, and choosing the right solution can be a difficult task. This buying guide can help simplify things for you.

Coverage

• Are your fleets crossing international borders or do they only operate locally?

  If your fleets cross international borders and you wish to track them or communicate with them, you must choose a vehicle tracking system and fleet management services that are able to operate not only in your home country but also in the territories to which your vehicles travel.

Telematics control unit

• Will the unit drain my vehicle’s battery if not used for long periods of time?

  The unit should not consume more than 1-3mA in power save mode. Anything above this will potentially drain the battery of a passenger vehicle if it is not used for more than a few days.

• What if the unit is disconnected from the main battery of the vehicle?

  You should purchase a unit that has internal backup battery as standard. Whether in case of theft or car battery malfunction, the device should continue to work for at least 8-10 hours until the situation is assessed and acted upon.

• What happens if the unit cannot transmit data due to communication infrastructure problems?

  The unit you purchase should have an internal memory to save data where the communication network is not present, and send the saved data whenever the network becomes available. This feature will ensure that you never lose any data.

• Will I be able to collect data from the vehicle’s CANBUS system?

  Having access to the CANBUS system enables you to get much more than just the location, speed and heading of the vehicle. Applications like remote diagnosis and fuel management require information from the CANBUS of the vehicle.

• Can I make sure that the vehicles are not driven improperly (in a way that increases fuel consumption or decreases the safety of the vehicle and its occupants)?

  To ensure vehicles are driven properly, the unit should have a G Sensor to measure acceleration in all directions. This is necessary in order to sense overly fast acceleration, deceleration or turning, and report it to the system to alert the fleet manager of such instances.

• Technology changes, so will I have to send the vehicle for a service in order to benefit from the most up to date services?

  The unit should be updatable over the air, without requiring your vehicle to go in for a service (which is an administrative hurdle and a loss of revenues).

Application

• Should the fleet management system be desktop or hosted?

  Desktop-based applications require constant maintenance and upgrades; with a service provider all of these and more are handled automatically. Hosted applications get frequent upgrades to the application as well as to the digital maps while you enjoy the best of the breed solutions without worrying about IT expenses. And even if your internet is down, all of your vehicles’ data are stored on secure servers. You can reach them anytime, anywhere as long as you have an internet connection.

• How secure and reliable are the datacenter hosting the application?

  Fleet management is a mission critical application that is also used for emergency response, so an A+ data center guaranteeing 99.99% uptime should be the choice of the service provider. These top-grade data centers are used by banks and other security-sensitive firms, so you can rest assured that your data is safe and secure.

• What is the benchmark for quality on digital maps provided?

  Make sure that the service provider has access to the most up-to-date digital map data with the widest possible coverage, and that they are updated regularly, at least twice a year.

Integration

• Can the application be integrated to our back office applications now or in the future?

  The application should have the appropriate architecture to provide integration to any other application that will increase its use, and streamline your operations. The integration can be done with web service and XML technologies.

• To which other applications has the fleet management system already been integrated?

  Call center applications and emergency assistance services are very important for any fleet management user, so the application you choose should have completed these integrations.

Track record and References

• How can I evaluate a service provider generally as a solution partner?

  The company you choose should have operated at least 5 years within the field of vehicle telematics. The technology is complex and encompasses many subsystems requiring such time to overcome all technological and operational hurdles. The company should also have strong references in your operational field.

• Are OEM telematics projects a good way to differentiate one service provider from another?

  Certainly. Vehicle telematics is a technologically sophisticated field, so a company that can handle complex OEM telematics projects will be better able to provide less intrinsic telematics applications.