Global Fleet Conference: Bob Zimmer explains why telematics matter at Pepsico

Bob Zimmer is Supply Chain Fleet Technology Senior Manager at PepsiCo. At the 2019 Global Fleet Conference he explained how you can make a telematics programme work across the globe with direct benefits in fleet efficiency, reducing emissions and increasing safety.

Bob Zimmer (pictured) started the telematics journey in 2008. Today most of the 90,000 assets the food and beverage multinational operates globally have telematics technology on board. The secret for success starts with convincing top stakeholders of the business cases for telematics. According to Mr Zimmer, there are four:

1. Safety Business Case: as safety is paramount, it’s the ideal ingredient to make sure your telematics meal appeals to everybody. And although the benefits are not immediately visible it’s undeniably a strong argument to introduce the telematics topic within a corporate organisation. This safety business case includes elements of accident re-creation, safety behaviour, and theft deterrent and recovery of vehicles that can be monitored via telematics. In various markets Pepsico has seen a significant reduction in collisions in vehicles using telematics.
2. Fleet Business Case: this is the business case that will demonstrate immediate benefits, enabling to pick the low-hanging fruit. This business case contains elements of asset reliability, maintenance optimisation, out of route miles, and last but not least idle reduction. "By handling idle reduction, we generated savings that we could use to fund the next steps of our telematics programme," said Mr Zimmer.
3. Productivity Business Case: every organisation looks for efficiency and productivity. With telematics both can be enhanced. This business case is about elements like asset management, route efficiency, and missed or unexpected stops.
4. Compliance Business Case: finally a company needs to make sure it respects compliance. By using telematics a fleet manager and the organisation can get an insight into the exact hours worked by its employees, there is mileage tracking, and government reporting, hence improved customer service.

All four busines cases make sense, and emphasise the importance technology and telematics can play in a cost-efficient, sustainable and safe fleet programme.

To implement the PepsiCo telematics programme, Bob Zimmer followed 6 essential steps:

1. Readiness assessment: with business team approval, HR, Legal and Funding approval and the appointment of a project lead
2. Telematics Supplier contact: a telematics supplier representative is required for the complete implementation phase and a full fleet assessment needs to be performed
3. Install telematics hardware 
4. Create the baseline: the goal is to run the telematics system for a certain period - 90 days – to gather data about the use of the fleet. A tip from Mr Zimmer: if the telematics supplier has a base mode and a pro mode for its technology, go for the base mode during the testing period. Why pay for technology features you will not use yet?
5. Customer tracking requirements: you must decide and be transparent in what elements are a priority to track and which are preferred. Indeed, you need to order, and you can’t just do everything from the start.
6. Country leverage: according to country specifics and preferences, it can be recommended to add a local touch for these countries with additional productivity focus areas.