Features
22 mar 22

“Fleet sustainability can’t be successful without connectivity”

Why do fleets need to be connected, and how is that related to sustainability? Those questions will dominate this year’s Connected Fleets Conference, which will take place on 28-29 March in Amsterdam (tickets are still available). One of the speakers will be Fabian Seithel (pictured), Geotab Associate VP Sales & Business Development for the Nordics, Central & Eastern Europe. “Our best opportunity to reduce global emissions is by helping our fleet customers operate more efficiently,” he says.

The theme for this year’s Connected Fleets Conference is ‘Sustainable and Connected’. How are those two related, in your opinion?

“We at Geotab firmly believe that fleet sustainability can’t be successful without connectivity. Let me give you three examples:

  • Your fleet’s electrification potential can easily be calculated using connectivity. Electrification today is often a very emotive topic. Via connectivity, it can be a very objective one.
  • PHEVs are very popular in fleets, but their electric engine is often ‘forgotten’. By leveraging telematics, you can optimise the efficient use and charging of the electric engine, realising the PHEV’s full potential.
  • Also outside of the EV issue, ‘classic’ telematics is guiding fleets towards sustainability. This is done by optimising routes, driver behaviour and fuel economy, reducing idle time, and other applications, which reduce cost and CO2 emissions.”

What’s the biggest misconception about connectivity that you see among corporate fleets – and how can we overcome this?

“Some may still see connectivity as a cumbersome topic, because of data privacy issues. However, if we look at connectivity from the perspective of solutions rather than restrictions, we see that the initial challenges of data privacy typically are not an issue anymore.”

“We have a whole range of tools now – including group structures, role-based access rights, and restricted data mode (which means no processing of position data) – that have turned many pessimists into true evangelists of connectivity services. And that includes employee representatives. To get there, it’s really important to focus on the target and clearly define what’s in scope. Which means that it’s equally important to define what’s out of scope of any particular telematics deployment.”

Finally, what will be the key topic of Arval’s presentation at the 2022 Connected Fleets Conference? And can you give us an appetiser with regards to the content?

“At Geotab, we have a clear mission: to contribute to a more sustainable future. Our best opportunity to reduce global emissions is by helping our fleet customers operate more efficiently, and transition to zero-emission vehicles. Our solutions have a significant and direct impact on emissions reductions: 1.25 million tons of CO2 emissions could be eliminated from the atmosphere by reducing the CO2 emitted by our customers’ fleets by even as little as 5% per year.” 

“Our range of solutions span both non-EVs and EVs, for example: vehicle tracking devices, alternative fuels, car sharing, eco-driving, electric vehicles, emissions reduction and vehicle maintenance. We have recently published a case story with Swiss Federal Railways. The company has successfully started to transition its fleet to EVs by using our EVSA tool for EV suitability.”

Fleet Europe’s 2022 Connected Fleets Conference will take place in Amsterdam on 28-29 March. Click here for details about the programme and information on how to register.

Image: Geotab

Authored by: Frank Jacobs