Features
23 Dec 19

Fleet LatAm, Geotab Webinar: Adding value to fleet through telematics

The holiday season has just begun and one thing we cannot forget is to be safe on roads. After the New Year, most of us will be heading back to work and for Fleet Managers, maintaining safety in their fleets will remain a priority for 2020 and beyond.

To learn more on the subject, Fleet LatAm broadcasted a Webinar in partnership with international telematics firm Geotab which addressed fleet safety and TCO and how to look at telematics as an added value rather than an additional cost.

Not only does improving safety through telematics lower TCO, it makes your company more attractive to new employees and most importantly, saves lives.

Hosted by Global Fleet Chief Editor Steven Schoefs, the 50-minute Webinar counted on expert advice from Diego Fabricio Vidrio Torres who is Partner Account Manager for Fleet Management in Latin America for Geotab and Joaquín Lizarralde who is Head of Operations for vehicle leasing and fleet management company RDA Renting in Argentina and Uruguay.

The Webinar started with Mr. Torres giving some background information about Geotab - which boasts 1.9 million connected vehicles globally - and about the precarious transportation infrastructure in Latin America, which suffers from 115,000 traffic related fatalities per year.

Geotab headquarters in Oakville Canada (source: Glassdoor)

When implementing Geotab telematics in fleet cars, a variety of risk and safety reports are provided. “Among them are those that track seat belt usage, harsh braking and cornering, speeding, after-hours vehicle use, collisions, and road impediments,” said Mr. Torres.

Besides benefits such as optimizing maintenance, route planning, fuel savings, improving productivity, and keeping up with compliance issues, one of the features the executive highlighted was Go Talk, all of which are ideal for fleet managers or leasing companies.

“Go Talk is an in-vehicle driver coaching solution that enhances driver and fleet safety by providing spoken work alerts to drivers while on the road in real-time,” the executive explained.

Following Mr. Torres’ talk was Mr. Lizarralde who presented a case study on success and pointed out some of the key fleet management policies of RDA Renting.

The company implemented telematics in a fleet of some 600 vehicles for a large agriculture firm and, according to the executive, it successfully achieved goals such as minimizing accident rates and improving risk prevention.

“Besides evaluating driver behaviour, telematics helps RDA Renting reduce material and human losses as well as cut expenses stemming from legal actions,” Mr. Lizarralde said, adding that Geotab’s Open Platform offers the flexibility needed in managing fleets.

One of the main focuses of the company is speed control. While those who briefly go above the speed limit (for less than 30 seconds) are usually not reprimanded, those with prolonged speeding of more than 30 seconds at a time must be addressed. The company gives rewards to compliant drivers.

Among the other rules of RDA Renting is limiting drivers to a maximum of 650km per day and allowing no more than 100km of night driving (from 8pm-6am).

For the full Webinar, see below…

 

 

Authored by: Daniel Bland