Telematics
Telematics is the combined use of telecommunications and information technology to collect, transmit and process vehicle data. In fleet operations, a telematics system reads GPS position, CAN bus data and on-board sensors, then delivers that data to fleet managers as a basis for routing, cost and safety decisions.
What does a telematics system consist of?
A telematics setup has three layers, and any one of them can become the bottleneck:
- On-board unit. A device wired into the vehicle’s electrical system and the CAN bus, or a battery-powered tracker on a trailer or container where there is no permanent power supply. What the unit can read sets the scope of all the data further down the line.
- Transmission. A SIM card and a mobile network, increasingly LTE, with LTE-M or NB-IoT for battery-powered devices. Data is sent continuously or buffered until a scheduled transmission, for example once coverage returns.
- Platform. The layer where data turns into decisions: a map, a report, an alert, an integration with a transport management or accounting system. On its own, a stream of vehicle data tells nobody anything.
What is fleet management?
Fleet management is the work of keeping vehicles moving reliably at the lowest possible cost. It covers dispatching and routing, asset management, vehicle purchasing and maintenance, as well as recruiting, training and paying drivers. Within that process, telematics is the measurement layer: it supplies the facts that decisions rest on, but does not make the decisions itself. The wider scope is covered on the fleet management page.
How does a telematics system work?
A fleet telematics system draws on three data sources. GPS provides real-time visibility of each vehicle’s location, speed and direction of travel. The CAN bus captures driver behaviour (harsh acceleration, sharp cornering, hard braking) along with the vehicle’s diagnostic state. In-vehicle sensors record the events they are built for: temperature changes in a trailer, tyre pressure, cargo-door openings; fuel probes report fuel level and consumption in real time and detect fuel drains. The data is transmitted continuously to secure servers, or stored until a scheduled transmission, and fleet managers access and interpret it through telematics software.
What is telematics used for in fleet management?
Telematics supports far more than locating vehicles on a map. Typical uses include:
- dispatching jobs and setting routes, with live reaction to vehicle availability, weather and road conditions
- monitoring engine performance, including vehicle speed and fuel consumption
- recording driver behaviour and driving style, and building individual driver training on that data
- remote tachograph download, showing how much driving time each driver has left before a mandatory rest
- tightening fuel control with fuel probes and filler-cap protection
- reducing compliance and administrative workload, for example through digital records of journeys and driver settlement
Route optimisation based on telematics data cuts mileage, fuel costs, CO2 emissions, vehicle wear and time spent in the workshop. Dashcams with built-in telematics detect accidents and dangerous manoeuvres automatically and upload the incident clip to a cloud platform within minutes. That footage can speed up insurance claims or defend a driver against false accusations (see truck dashcams). Fleet platforms such as frameLOGIC consolidate these data streams in a single dashboard.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between telematics and GPS tracking?
GPS tracking is one component of telematics: position, speed and direction. Telematics adds CAN bus data, in-vehicle sensors and data processing on top, which is what turns a dot on a map into driver-behaviour scores, fuel monitoring and compliance reporting.
Does telematics improve driver safety?
Yes. Telematics systems detect risky patterns such as harsh braking or aggressive acceleration and can alert fleet managers to them, and the data feeds individual driver training programmes. Drivers who know their driving style is monitored also tend to drive more conservatively.
Which systems does telematics integrate with?
Most often with a transport management system (TMS) and with accounting or payroll software. The value of integration is that data is entered once: a trip recorded by the on-board unit becomes the basis for invoicing the job, calculating the driver’s pay and producing the transport document, with no retyping.
Does telematics work on trailers without power?
Yes, but with different hardware. Trailers, containers and machines without a permanent power supply use battery-powered trackers. They report less often, for example a few times a day instead of every minute, and use LTE-M or NB-IoT networks so that one set of batteries lasts for years.
Can telematics read tachograph data remotely?
Yes. Remote tachograph download is a standard telematics function: it shows how much driving time each driver has left before a required stop and rest, which helps operators avoid penalties for driving-time infringements.