TORONTO, Ont. – GE Capital Solutions has expanded its telematics services to the Canadian market. The company says its award-winning telematics solution offers more than just asset tracking, focusing heavily on how customers can use the data provided by telematics devices to improve productivity.

“We look at this from a holistic approach,” said Stephen Ulanoski, senior vice-president and general manager of telematics solutions with GE. “It can’t just be about the vehicle, it has to be about all the assets and the related functionalities around that asset.”

GE has found the biggest cost-saving opportunities available through telematics stem from the human resources side of the equation.

“Most of the telematics solutions on the market today started from the vehicle and worked back, pulling data off the vehicle and providing it to customers and letting customers do what they would with it,” Doug Peters, vice-president of telematics marketing strategy and analytics said.

“We took a different approach and started with the customers and looked for issues within our customers’ operations where telematics could provide solutions.”

According to GE, fleet costs account for roughly 12% of its customers’ operating expenses while human resources-related expenses represent about 52%.

“We’re trying to provide, not a box that’s giving a lot of data to the fleet manager, but a solution that helps customers drive growth using real-time business intelligence,” explained Peters.

GE takes a three-pronged approach to helping its customers save money by determining: what is happening?; why is it happening?; and how do I improve it?

While monitoring vehicle usage alone can deliver a 1-3X return on investment, GE representatives said that properly managing the data collected through telematics can deliver a 2-7X ROI and optimizing the data for improved productivity can deliver an ROI of up to 15X.

“When we get to the optimization of scheduling and routing, you can get as high as a 15-times return,” insisted Peters.

During a recent Webinar, GE shared several case studies from south of the border, where its telematics solution was already available.

The case studies showed the ROI achieved by customers came from a variety of sources, one being fuel savings.

Based on its experiences, GE says employing its telematics solution is equivalent to knocking fuel prices from $1.20/litre to $1.02/litre – or from 80 cents/litre to 68 cents/litre.

However, the company warns against placing too much emphasis on fuel savings alone.

“If you put the value of telematics solely on the cost of fuel, then you’re at the mercy of the price of fuel to justify the cost,” warned Peters. “The potential for productivity is so much greater just by gaining visibility of what’s happening in your operation. It’s really the productivity component where the value comes.”

In one case, just by re-sequencing a fleet’s deliveries, GE was able to help reduce the customer’s drive time by 10 hours per day, fuel consumption by 150 litres and mileage by 500 km.

Eventually, the customer was able to remove one truck from its fleet while still meeting all its customers’ requirements, Peters explained.

GE is targeting a wide range of applications with its telematics solutions, ranging from Class 1-8 vehicles.

The most powerful part of its solution is the analytical engine that’s used to identify opportunities for improved productivity, the company says, adding it can even use existing data from other providers “as long as the data is good.”