An introduction to truck telematics

An introduction to truck telematics

Have you heard of truck telematics? It is a technology that has been used by fleet cars for some years and is now becoming more popular in the haulage industry. Truck telematics involves installing a unit in the truck that measures the location of the vehicle and its performance.

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A black box is fitted to the vehicle, which contains the telematics device. It captures the location of the vehicle via GPS along with metrics from the engine and information from an on-board accelerometer.

Benefits of telematics

Why would you invest in telematics for your vehicles? Here are just a few of the reasons:

Insurance savings

By monitoring your drivers’ performance in this way, it is possible to determine where safety can be improved. By raising awareness of bad habits, accidents can be minimised. The GPS facility enables stolen trucks to be recovered, sparing the insurance company the cost of replacement and the cost of the cargo. This could lead to lower cost HGV insurance from brokers such as https://www.quotemetoday.co.uk/hgv-insurance.

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Fuel efficiency

Telematics systems can also operate like a satnav and calculate the best route for your drivers to take. This can eliminate time spent in traffic and provide you with the most fuel-efficient route.

Maintenance and breakdowns

The information gathered from the engine can help your mechanical team to identify problems before they result in breakdowns. This saves you money by ensuring that your fleet is always in motion and that work is carried out before any lasting damage is done.

Great customer service

With a real-time system giving you a truck’s location, you can now tell your clients with more accuracy when they can expect their deliveries to arrive. Move from ‘sometime today’ to ‘between 2pm and 3pm’ and save your customers potential inconvenience.

Money savings

This all adds up to significant cost savings, and all for around £15 per month per vehicle. Between insurance, fuel and downtime, you can reap significant rewards and gather useful information to improve your business.

Truck telematics is the future of business. As more companies use this technology, so customers will come to expect it. The rewards for hauliers are clear. Although there may be some resistance from drivers, they should have no cause for concern if they are doing their job well.

 

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