Geotab
Perfecting End-to-end Fleet Management Solutions

The emergence of telematics has helped derive meaningful insights in the logistics sector, on the driving patterns of individuals, by providing a clear picture of the driver’s speed and accuracy. This trend has fostered cost-effective, distinctive products that can help increase driver productivity, promote safer driving, and maximize fleet dollars by setting clear goals, and performing detailed, initial analysis. “The logistics industry works on razor-thin margins and the biggest challenge lies in integration and tracking vehicle data into the entire logistics process from beginning to end,” asserts Neil Cawse, CEO, Geotab. Headquartered in Oakville, Ontario, Geotab, a technology innovator in telematics, is committed to collecting a vast amount of vehicle data to help fleets understand the information, and apply it to their businesses f or improving safety and productivity.

Geotab bases its solutions on four pillars—Productivity, safety, fleet, and compliance. These pillars help achieve higher productivity with fewer accidents. As an engineering firm, the company’s reporting and analytics tools permit complete customization for any i n d i v i d - ual fleet. “ T h roug h our highl e v e l data reporting, we can assist fleets in lowering idling, fuel consumption and speeding, as well as encouraging safe driving,” boasts Cawse. As the needs of a fleet changes over a period of time, the company also offers a unique ability to expand the solution, to meet the requirements. Through the reseller channel, Geotab has recently introduced the GO7, a plug-and-play telematics device that solves the problem of accessing vehicle data available across various vehicle networks.

The logistics industry works on razor-thin margins and the biggest challenge lies in integration and tracking vehicle data into the entire logistics process from beginning to end

With its solution, the company successfully eliminates many existing gaps in the individual datasets in order to provide customers with the most complete data available today. For instance, a driver requires detailed information as to where a road starts or ends its speed limit,

number of lanes, direction of traffic, and the paving time. The quality of the road deteriorates after a certain period of time, making it tricky for map providers to have the most up-to-date information. Geotab provides a solution to this challenge using the ‘Open Street- Map Quality Assurance Tool,’ a device that uses open collaboration to offer the most up-to-date-data to customers. “We use an advanced algorithm that combines the industry’s best sources of posted road speed data with OpenStreetMap data,” expounds Cawse. The company’s web application, ‘MyGeotab’ enables administrators and supervisors to select and edit road speed data in real-time. This data will “override” the speed data for that road, which can be instantly applied, and any vehicle driving down that road will then be monitored with the new value. This data can be customized to make informed decisions to provide winning solutions for their companies.

With its expertise in the area of GPS fleet management and the ability to be agile in the fast-paced industry, Geotab has full control over its hardware, software, and end-to-end developers of the technology. “We build our own hardware; develop our own software, and firmware. Our ability to daisy-chain hardware and software applications is our real strength,” claims Cawse. In an interesting case study, Geotab assisted the company Orkin to monitor and enforce safety practices in their fleets. With the in-vehicle alerts to the driver along with a comprehensive driver scorecard, Orkin was able to clearly define expectations and ensure that the driver was following them through close monitoring.

What’s next for Geotab? In the words of Cawse, “We are continually adding new features in ‘MyGeotab’; this includes features like partner store application and new Input Output Expanders (IOXs). Our primary focus would be on building the Geotab Drive and increasing our partner ecosystem to ensure customer satisfaction,” he concludes.