Sample Telematics Trial Case Study

 In Archive
« Back to blogs

Periodically, we’ll perform a trial of our solutions to assess the exact impact we can have on a potential customer. When we do, we treat each trial as if it’s a real project by following implementation methodology and performing business reviews. Typically, the trial duration is 30 to 60 days with Business Reviews once per month. It’s a great opportunity to prove the value of Telematics generally and to show off our industry leading reporting and analytics.

Below is a sample analysis we performed recently for a client who was focused on speeding and idling issues. Spoiler Alert: The suspicions about idling issues are confirmed to the tune of over $200k per year in wasted fuel. This alone would pay for the Thingtech solution 3x over before any other benefits are realized. Check it out…

Case Study
For Client X, thingtech performed a 60 day free trial on two (2) vehicles. Below is the system generated dashboard that summarizes data for the period. Note: For this trial, the client was particularly focused on Speeding and Idling challenges and, therefore, the analysis did not involve any Driver Behavior, Vehicle Health Monitoring, or other features.

Starting December 1st, 2014, thingtech installed 2 devices and began tracking Speed, Idle & Trip data.  Here are the results using our Dashboard driven Telematics solution.

  1. During the 60 day period, Client X’s two (2) vehicles drove approx. 3,100 miles and incurred approx. 12,500 minutes (210 Hrs.) of Engine Time.  See top left of dashboard.
  2. We immediately notice that Idling is a more frequent issue than speeding on a 4:1 ratio.  See Alarms by Type pie chart.
  3. Isolating the idling issue is the first step to resolution.  Upon further analysis, it appears that the vast majority of the idling alarms are generated from the “Demo 1” Device.

Speeding Alarms Analysis

During the 60 day trial, Client X incurred 110 Speeding Alarms (as defined by the client as over 65 mph).  When speeding, the vehicles average speed was 71 mph; however, thingtech recorded a vehicle traveling as fast as 89 mph during the trial.  Finally, approximately 75% of the time that a vehicle was speeding, it was doing so excessively as defined by traveling over 75 mph.

To determine which vehicle are speeding most frequently, we review the Speeding Alarms by Vehicle bar chart and quickly discover that although “Demo 1” appears to have issues with Idling, “Demo 2” is the more frequent speeding violator at an almost 2:1 ratio.

Speeding is directly attributable to increased fuel consumption (reducing speeding by 5 mph reduces consumption by 1 gallon) and liability. As a result, monitoring average speed and number of speeding alarms over time is useful to properly manage the fleet and driver behavior for continuous improvement. Although Client X has not yet begun driver coaching or speeding policy enforcement, the Speeding Trends line graph will be a helpful tool when the process begins.

Idling Alarms & ROI Analysis

During the 60 day trial, Client X incurred over 300 instances of idling, which racked up approximately 6,200 minutes (103 hrs.) of idling time. When compared to the 12,500 minutes of Engine Time, we quickly understand that Client X’s vehicles are idling for 50% of the time they engine is running – a massive figure. Accepted industry metrics state that 1 gallon of fuel is burned for every 1 hour of idling. At $3.50 / gallon fuel, Client X wasted $365 of fuel in during the 60 day trial with 2 vehicles. If nothing is done to correct, just these 2 vehicles will cost Client X $2,193 in wasted fuel per year and if extrapolated across the entire 100 vehicle fleet, Client X is facing a $219,275 opportunity cost if nothing is done to correct the idling problem. Finally, when the cost of a Telematics solution is factored in, and using only Idling savings to calculate, Client X would see a 265% return on investment in telematics technology – before any other savings and benefits outside of Idling are explored.