There’s a lot more to electric vehicle telematics than just knowing where your vehicles are. With the right EV telematics solution supporting their fleet operations, fleet managers can take advantage of a whole range of benefits. These include cost savings, delivering better customer service, optimising routes, reducing the time spent on unnecessary processes, improving employee training, and more.
Electric vehicle telematics and the improvements in day-to-day fleet management that it enables can quite easily put those that use it well above the competition, transform the way they work, and safeguard bottom lines.
In a bid to dispel the myth that fleet tracking is nothing but a way for organisations to watch their drivers, we’ve put together a list of five reasons why electric vehicle telematics is important for your fleet.
What is EV telematics?
But first, let’s make sure that we’re all on the same page.
EV telematics helps organisations continuously gather data about their vehicles by using a combination of GPS, telecommunications, onboard diagnostics, vehicle technologies, and the Internet of Things (IoT).
This data can then be accessed by fleet managers through an online dashboard and be used to improve fleet operations through features such as vehicle tracking, driver behaviour monitoring, efficient route planning, maintenance scheduling, managing driver expenses, finding EV recharging sites, and more.
As you can see then, electric vehicle telematics is so much more than watching vehicles on a map.
5 reasons why EV telematics is important
Here’s a quick look at five reasons why a robust telematics solution is crucial for any electrified fleet.
1. Telematics provides insight into driver behaviour
Although it’s true that modern vehicle telematics is about more than merely tracking and watching drivers, it’s still critical for fleet managers to have an insight into what their drivers are doing, not least because one bad driver can end up being a huge liability.
Electric vehicle telematics systems like Trakm8 continuously gather data about fleet vehicles and provide stakeholders with a real-time overview of how drivers are behaving behind the wheel. This might include routes taken by drivers, total distance travelled, driving time, average vehicle speed, and events such as harsh acceleration and braking. This level of insight gives fleet managers the chance to step in and take remedial action to avoid inefficient, or worse, dangerous practices or habits. Driver behaviour has a significant impact on efficiency, which in turn can affect the range of the vehicle.
2. Telematics can lead to significant cost savings
It’s often said that a robust telematics solution will pay for itself. That’s because good fleet management can lead to a wide range of cost reductions. For example, businesses that use EV telematics may unlock huge savings on insurance premiums due to enhanced driver monitoring.
3. Telematics can send you vehicle health updates
EV telematics hardware is more than just a black box with a GPS tracker built into it. It’s a powerful bit of kit that’s integrated right into the core of your fleet vehicles and makes use of sensors to detect problems and provide an insight into vehicle health.
Using the Trakm8 system’s cloud-based platform, for example, fleet managers can receive instant insights into things like tyre pressure and oil levels and receive alerts about potentially faulty parts and battery health. If a problem arises, the platform can be used to schedule servicing and maintenance at a time that avoids disruption to schedules and planned routes, thus reducing fleet downtime.
4. Telematics leads to better route planning
Even the most basic electric vehicle telematics solutions include GPS and real-time map tracking. Not only does this help fleet managers keep tabs on your fleet, but it also enables proactive route planning.
Using a telematics system, it becomes possible to use thousands of real-time datapoints to plan routes that get the most use out of EV batteries and, if necessary, factor in stops at recharging stations along the way. The very best telematics systems will enable route planning on the fly so that fleet managers can react to developing challenges such as accidents and traffic jams.
5. Telematics can help you plan charging schedules
One of the biggest challenges associated with EV fleets is charging. This is because there’s currently limited charging infrastructure available, and this requires fleet managers to carefully plan EV charging around schedules, routes, and maintenance. On top of this, there’s also the potential for unplanned events such as sudden bad weather, temperature changes, and traffic congestion.
An effective EV telematics solution like Trakm8, however, allows fleet managers to put together data-led charging schedules, receive continuous charging updates, and plan vehicle recharge priorities based on upcoming routes, schedules, and charging infrastructure availability.
Predictive maintenance and health alerts also help to keep costs down by identifying problems before they develop, and it’s even possible to get information on where vehicles are being charged and plan future recharging around times when electricity rates are cheaper. Remember that the need for fleet managers to manage their ‘fuel’ costs won’t disappear with the transition to EVs. If anything, it could intensify because energy costs represent one of the biggest areas for potential cost savings compared to traditional petrol and diesel-powered fleets.
Learn more about EV telematics
Interested in learning more about how EV telematics could transform your fleet operations?
At Trakm8, we’re the leaders in fleet tracking and fleet telematics technology. We help our customers to monitor their EVs in real-time and from anywhere to deliver significant leaps in operational efficiency and cost savings across the board. Read more in our Guide to Electic Vehicle Telematics.
Is your fleet ready for the transition to Electric Vehicles? Find out today by completing the free Electric Vehicle Suitability Assessment tool from Trakm8.
Talk to us today to learn how our innovative electric vehicle telematics technology can help you.
