Telematics for Fleets
What are telematics, and why are they vital to EV fleets?
Telematics can sound like a scary thing to folks who aren’t familiar with what actually goes on under the metaphorical hood of fleet management. To put it simply, “telematics” are a set of data points, parameters, and statistics that can be used to track the use of a fleet. When we talk about use here, we mean things like dwell time, duty time, distance traveled, average speeds, and other basic bits and pieces of driving-related data.
In order to collect telematic information, you don’t need a whole lot of equipment:
- A GPS receiver to track the vehicle’s location, where it stops, where it speeds up or slows down, etc.;
- A sim card to wirelessly send data back to the fleet base or office;
- An accelerometer to track the acceleration of a vehicle;
- Some kind of dashboard interface to interact with
And that’s more or less all, there are other bits and pieces but these are the key ones to keep in mind. These tools can be packaged together as one hardware suite, and plugged into a vehicle’s OBD II or other port. Once you have that installed, you need to know how to best use the information, especially for an electric vehicle fleet.
So, why are telematics so important for electric vehicle fleets?
Telematics are important to all vehicle fleets; you want to be able to understand how your vehicles are being used in order to better maintain them and streamline your work processes. For electric vehicles (EVs) however, there’s an added wrinkle: the batteries. A huge part of maintaining an EV fleet is keeping your batteries topped up. While EV ranges have been consistently growing, they still don’t always measure up – and the ranges themselves can vary wildly based on factors such as driving style, weather conditions, and even whether or not the route for a certain vehicle is significantly hillier.
Beyond gaining insights into the finer workings of your fleet and being able to plan accordingly, many people see the end-goal of telematics as simply cost-savings. If you’re able to understand how your fleet moves, how your drivers drive, and where and when there are opportunities to make better use of time, then you can streamline your fleet to maximize cost savings. Identifying instances where public charging can be used most efficiently, swapping vehicles when they’re lower on charge to spread out vehicle use while making the most of downtime for charging, and other measures can be key to effectively streamlining your fleet’s operation.
If you have questions about telematics, EV fleet charging, or anything related, we’d love to hear from you and answer your questions. Contact Cielo at hello@cielocharging.com
If your company is interested in exploring workplace charging, we can help. Cielo EV Charging Systems offers full system installation, comprehensive site assessments, feasibility reviews and system designs that can be customized for your location.