Tag: telematics devices

Driver behavior has a big impact in a fleet total cost, even in the most advanced vehicles with automated processes inside. Many studies have focused in modeling the driver behavior and trying to find a standard. In many case cases the driver behavior is easily confused with the vehicle behavior as the data are not analyzed in real time and are not corelated with other external factors or sensors.

Our experience in the telematics industry , which gathers more than 15 years, 4000 brands and models of vehicles, more than 1 million devices sold all over the world, customized security and mobility projects and one-to-one relations ship with our partners, proved that consistency of the data is the key for a successful telematics business. Many of our partners asked not only for the data, but also for some applications  that can make the change in what means an efficient fleet management solution. The main features and functionalities that a fleet manager wants to have in his platform are alerts and notifications about the components inside the vehicles, fuel level and safety data, details about the fleet efficiency and fuel management and the spotlight is on driver behavior.

 How changing the driver behavior in real time can increase savings and impact the environment

However, these active safety systems were designed based on an average of driver performance and rarely takes the individual driver’s characteristics into consideration. That is why, at CANGO we brought this concept even further and we have designed LUCAS-Driver Performance Assistant, which delivers a state-of-the-art scoring & coaching solution for your drivers, as it includes a comprehensive and fully settable Driver Behavior algorithm that includes 49 parameters calculated in real-time.

Lower costs and improve safety using the driver performance assistant

Fuel costs can make up 30 to 40 percent of a fleet’s cost per mile, according to the American Transportation Research Institute and most of the times this is the largest expense in a fleet budget.

Using an advanced driver behavior algorithm corelated with road and weather conditions and coaching the driver in real time by showing him how to be a better driver the costs of fuel face a reduction of 18% starting from day one of implementation.

Experience and knowledge combined with technology can identify in real time different type of behaviors and correct them in order to reduce idling habits, speeding behavior in order to increase anticipation and efficient braking.

Improving driver behavior by using the vehicle in an efficient way is translated also in a reduction of wear and tear of the vehicle. Aggressive driving causes more wear and tear on brakes and engines and in the most cases combined with speeding doesn’t make the driver reach the destination quicker.

All the parameters, data, information, reports can offer the real picture about the entire fleet and behavior for each individual as it corelates with the driver ID. These information have a great impact in increasing the driver productivity, as he can be trained accordingly and incentive, and decreasing the costs of insurance.

As the economic situation impacted the fleets at a higher level than before and the price of fuel faced a great raise in the past months, having efficient drivers will have an impact directly in the fuel costs for the fleet. In the same time as the vehicle is used in an efficient way the CO2 emission will decrease as the foot on the pedal is directly corelated with the safety and the impact to environment.

Act now! Implement the driver performance assistant into your fleet management solution. Did you know that you can do that without adding any additional hardware? Contact us here and we’ll show you how!

When talking about profitable telematics solutions, what is the first thing that comes into your mind? Is it the low price of the connected devices? Is it the device’s reliability or the extended warranty policy? Is it important to provide “any kind of data” or follow the integrity factor? Is support and installation important in this equation? 

We wanted to go a bit behind the scenes, so we asked all the questions above. Some of the answers reflected the market exactly the way it is, and some of the answers defined the market in the way we want it to be. 

Are cheap devices a good option for your telematics solution?

After a 2-year pandemic, with an ongoing war affecting the economy and right in the middle of the Components Shortage crisis, talking about cash flow is a sensitive topic to bring up. There are a lot of cheap units on the market when it comes to GPS tracking units or data reading devices. There are also a lot of companies choosing this type of solution to attract new customers. However, market research shows that cheap units are more expensive than an expensive telematics solution.  Why is that? 

A cheap device has limited and questionable functionalities. After the installation occurs, the users still get lots of needs uncovered because of the lack of functionalities in the implemented device. The unavailability of new updates requires a new device to cover the other needs.

New device, new costs, new warranty, new installation cost. The vehicles end up having multiple devices and not a reliable or high-end solution, which costs way more than complete and reliable telematics devices.

If we’d copy the buying behavior for end users devices and duplicate it to the vehicles and fleets, we’d encounter multiple advantages from day one.

Technical support and installation guiding for telematics

Is the installation process the key success of a telematics solution? It might be! If the device is not installed the proper way, on the right network, the success of the project is compromised. Of course, there is always the possibility to revisit the vehicle and restart the process. But this means extra costs. And this situation is available for so-called plug-and-play devices.

At CANGO we say that half of the success of a project comes from the proper installation of the telematics devices. Being in this business since the beginning we had many use cases and understood that customer and technical support combined with installation tips for the telematics product bring twice the value of the price. Besides a skilled technician, the installation manuals represent another important part of the process. 

Support may come in many ways but nothing compares with a one-to-one interaction experience and the confidence invested in the company that you choose provides through it. In the end, it is not only manuals and books. Support means more than that and it is a permanent consulting activity that the support engineer should develop with the customer to make sure the customer benefits from all the features and functionalities they required from the beginning. Plus standing in front of your clients with service management and giving access to your knowledge base comes only with a quality telematics device.

“Any data” vs “Data Integrity” 

Have you ever wondered about data integrity related to the telematics solution that you are using? In many situations the answer to  the question:” What data are you looking to have in your telematics solution?” was simply put:” any data…all the available data!”

Instead of looking for reliability and integrity in the data, companies have been carelessly focused on its frequency and breadth of it. It’s a rush in fulfilling price requests vs data quality overall covering all kinds of vehicle types in the project. Once you do fulfill it, nobody asks about the integrity of the data. What parameter from where is coming. Is it broadcasted? Is it calculated? Deducted? Interrogated on a vehicle data network? Could it be a fake parameter?

Imagine a fleet management solution with a driver behavior algorithm using data that has nothing to do with the reality from the field. Nor to mention the algorithm consistency included proven as experience and expertise of the provider; and driver behavior doesn’t mean accelerometer and harsh barking. It leads to no savings at all.

At CANGO Mobility, we advise our clients to proceed only based on past experience. We base our judgment on the experiences that we have been taught in the field: never rely on data that has not been checked, tested, or verified at some point by someone. That is why our tests are made in different conditions, on the field, and on real vehicles. 

Fleet managers and people responsible for implementing telematics solutions in their organization need to ask and verify the quality of the data with their telematics supplier as data integrity is like the DNA of the telematics system, otherwise, it is GIGO “garbage in/ garbage out”.

Also, this information and conclusion are doubled by the poll that we had on one of our social media channels and showed the following results: