Find out what the industry’s big telematics companies have to offer and at what price with our easy guide. Paul Barker writes
Telematics appears to be something of a Marmite area. Those that use it love it, but those that don’t subscribe tend to struggle to see the point.
A recent survey by Digicore found that just over a quarter of fleets currently use vehicle tracking technology, though that’s as high as 86% in the utilities sector.
The survey respondents claimed increased productivity (54%), better vehicle and staff performance (46%) and reduced cost (44%) as the three biggest benefits of telematics.
But for that majority of fleets that are currently not embracing this techno-riddled age of vehicle management, what’s actually on offer from companies in the telematics and tracking arena?
We’ve asked the industry’s biggest names a series of questions to see what they offer. From the basics of vehicle navigation and real-time tracking through to ring-fencing specific areas or roads, text and online management, stolen vehicle immobilisation and a basic cost per day across a either large or small fleet, we’ve set out to give fleet managers a comprehensive guide to what’s available. But it’s also worth bearing in mind that most firms already using telematics or tracking technology treasure customer service, supplier responsiveness and back-office support higher than the entry price or basic product functionality.
So, as always, the key advice is to shop around and find a firm you’re happier with, rather than the one with the lowest upfront price. However, this guide should act as a start point to fleets heading down the telematics route.
CMS SupaTrak
Website: www.supatrak.com
Customer phone number: 08444 774870
Customer email address: sales@supatrak.com
Year established: 1992
Describe your business in 30 words:
CMS SupaTrak is a leader in low cost, flexible tracking solutions and workforce mobility. We deliver individual components and fully managed end-to-end solutions to optimise business processes.
Product range:
The primary product is Supatrak but the company also sells complementary services including: fuel and vehicle management; carbon emissions monitoring; PDA tracking; cold chain monitoring (the ability to monitor the exact temperatures of chilled goods); asset tracking; trailer tracking and mobile workforce management.
DigiCore
Website: www.digicore.co.uk
Customer phone number: 020 8515 2900
Customer email address: info@digicore.co.uk
Year established: 1985
Describe your business in 30 words:
Over 22 years’ experience developing and implementing vehicle tracking and fleet management solutions. Its advanced C-track technology is fitted to almost 300,000 vehicles in 32 countries across five continents.
Product range:
The core solution, C-track, is a sophisticated fleet management system that adopts the latest technology to provide a comprehensive real-time vehicle management tool. It provides vital information about mobile assets and workforce, and offers a scaleable mobile solution that meets the complex needs of fleet operators.
Lombard Vehicle Management
Website: www.lombard.co.uk/fleetmanagement
Customer phone number: 0870 850 0057
Customer email address: contact through website
Year established: 1998
Describe your business in 30 words:
Lombard is one of the largest vehicle leasing and management companies and, following the acquisition of Tracker Network by parent RBS, the only lessor offering an in-house tracking product.
Product range:
The Lombard Fleet Tracker product includes stolen vehicle recovery systems and vehicle asset management systems.
Orangeade
Website: www.orangeade.net
Customer phone number: 0870 3214555
Customer email address: mark@orangeade.net
Year established: 1999
Describe your business in 30 words:
Orangeade offers bespoke telemetric solutions to our clients. As a manufacturer of telemetry products we write the firmware and software and are able to respond quickly to customer requirements.
Product range:
Real-time vehicle, personnel and asset tracking solutions including core product ActiveTrack, plus time and attendance product ActiveWorker.
Quartix
Website: www.quartix.co.uk
Customer phone number: 0870 0136663
Customer email address: enquiries@quartix.net
Year established: 2001
Describe your business in 30 words:
Quartix is used by over 1600 companies and installed in over 15,000 vehicles. Information from the easy-to-use system aids duty of care compliance and offers considerable financial benefits.
Product range:
Quartix offers a complete internet-based vehicle tracking and telematics solution.
TomTom Work
Website: www.tomtomwork.com
Customer phone number: 020 7255 9774
Customer email address: sales.uk@tomtomwork.com
Year established: 2004 (TomTom Work in the UK)
Describe your business in 30 words:
TomTom provides solutions for the management of vehicle fleets, from basic vehicle tracking through to full connected navigation. It facilitates vehicle tracking, two-way communication, job dispatch and satellite navigation.
Product range:
There are three integrated products: Webfleet, a web-based tracking and tracing service; the black box Link product; and Go, a navigation device.
Trafficmaster
Website: www.trafficmaster.co.uk
Customer phone number: 0870 460 5693
Customer email address: fleetsales@trafficmaster.co.uk
Year established: 1988
Describe your business in 30 words:
Trafficmaster provides services that enhance the driving experience and improve business performance while reducing environmental impact.
Product range:
Range includes Fleet Director fleet management software; Smartnav satnav; Trackstar stolen vehicle tracking; and speed camera alert system Safe Speed.
VeriLocation
Website: www.verilocation.com
Customer phone number: 01604 859854
Customer email address: info@verilocation.com
Year established: 1996
Describe your business in 30 words:
Provider of full range of real-time telematics and tracking services and systems. Bespoke solutions developed for clients/suppliers.
Product range:
Products include: VL-Fleet – GPS for larger groups; VL-DriverID – above with driver ID using dallas-style key fob or rfid (radio frequency identifier) tag; VL-CANbus – access to onboard telemetry including mpg, use of braking, overspeed, acceleration, siphoning and driver performance reports; VL-SatNav – integration of satnav allowing free messaging and route pushing (defining a driver’s route) from the website.
