Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Martyn MOORE
uring the good times it was hard it as the cost of moving fast, getting on Thankfully, fleet operators who have
most of the world’s business computers. now. It’s here and it works. Not to use the PCs and allow them to interact with peo-
Most IT developers dream about that technology to reduce costs and improve ple and products in much more natural
kind of market penetration. However, safety, that would be the crime. ways.”
most fleet operators are not Excel power Sometimes, when considering the future, We like the sound of that.
users and the appeal of fleet reporting it helps to look outside the sector. I
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FOCUS ICT & Telematics
Martyn MOORE
F an operator wants to know what’s Car manufacturers have a lot of experi- sure to a blown brake light bulb. Plugged
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as soon as a manufacturer adopts it and car to communicate. The next significant innovative, easy-to-use solution that
installs it into large numbers of cars. milestone will be the integration of inter- measures – through a telemetric index –
net when the car is being produced. the quality of driving. It helps to use less
Building connections “A long-term evolution will be to have fuel, to reduce CO2 emissions and to
Citroën has been offering its Active Fleet an outstanding internet connection in the save money up to 15 per cent.
Data system to French customers since car that’s faster and will provide better “It is mainly dedicated to our company
2008 and this month (September 2010) transfer of data. In ten years we could clients and uses the Fiat Blue&Me multi-
the technology will be offered as stan- expect a connection between the media and infotainment system to pro-
dard production equipment on selected driver/car, to receive, for example, the vide a tutorial program that helps drivers
cars. appointment of the scheduled service; to improve their driving style. There is
also a web-based dashboard that gives
“ On-board diagnostic systems have been around for years. the client a complete overview of the
fleet, to be analyzed and managed.”
System checks can tell you about everything from low tyre Eco:Drive Fleet will even report its own
money- and CO2-saving performance
pressure to a blown brake light bulb. ” and the feedback from pilot groups
across Europe is very positive.
Citroën’s Marie Guidolin, Communication the fleet manager who will monitor the Ranieri Honorati believes that the users
Manager, elaborates: “This telematic costs of the fleet, and the Citroën dealer will shape the evolution of the technology
service makes it possible to send a tech- who will receive all information needed to and Fiat is encouraging them to feed-
nical status of the vehicle, e.g. kilometres maintain the performance of the car.” back suggestions through eco:Ville, the
of the car, to the fleet manager twice a online user community.
week. Moreover, mechanical and safety Online community “We see sort of diagnostic provider and
alerts (oil level, worn brake pads etc.) Another European manufacturer pio- a vehicle administrator, with road tax,
are reported immediately by email to the neering the use of telematics is Fiat. insurance and parking permit reminders,
fleet manager. Fiat’s fleet marketing director Ranieri a timeline and a mileage line. The repor-
“The fleet manager receives 100 per cent Honorati told us what’s available now ting cycle will involve the ICT team to
reliable data so they can plan scheduled from the Italian manufacturer: “At Fiat provide and use information, the car-park
services, prevent breakdowns, avoid Group Automobiles we offer a free elec- management to get increasing effec-
unexpected expenses and optimize the tronic reporting tool for the fleet busi- tiveness and the drivers to optimize the
use of the fleet. The system will prove ness called eco:Drive Fleet. This is an general mobility.” I
itself in use. Our studies show that com-
panies typically know only one-third of the
This Fiat will soon know if it’s parked illegally
total cost of ownership (TCO) of the
and if the shopping has maxxed the credit cards.
fleet. Companies will have a better under-
standing of the TCO.”
Citroën will also launch localised emer-
gency calls and localised breakdown
calls in ten countries with the new system.
Looking ahead, Marie Guidolin sees even
better connected Citroëns: “The next
step will be the arrival of internet-based
services through a ‘car’dget’. Seeing the
traffic jam update or receiving information
on board from the vehicle display could
be a source of productivity for compa-
nies.
FleetEurope Magazine 51
Martyn MOORE
ease companies developed soft- which allows drivers to configure a vehi- Harmonization problems
L ware to streamline their business
processes. After all, leasing is the
management of finances around a group
cle and then checks it against the para-
meters set in the client’s contract. Car
ordering and contract administration are
Jörg Essig, head of corporate sales at
Daimler Financial Services, explains how
his company operates: “One of our fea-
of assets – in the case of fleet, the car probably the most fundamental functions ture systems is xFleet, which is mainly
park. The monitoring of those assets and of the leasing companies reporting tools. used to guide drivers through their com-
their costs, together with the prediction Through relationships with other sup- pany car programme and therefore ease
of their end-of-cycle value is part of a pliers, such as service and repair cen- the daily work for fleet operators. xFleet
leaseco’s core proposition. The more tres, fuel card providers and breakdown ‘knows’ the exact details of the driver’s
tools can help with this analysis, the more companies, a virtually endless list of addi- car policy and covers all options each
efficient and profitable the leasing com- tional metrics can be added to the repor- driver has. It considers all aspects regar-
pany will be. ting. It’s this list, the many permutations ding the company cars, including taxa-
Of course, the metrics used in these cal- of suppliers and the leasing company’s tion, and supports the fleet operator as
culations are also valuable to the cus- ability to tailor its reporting to the specific it also works as order processing tool.
tomer and as leasing companies strove needs of a client, that makes it difficult to “Additional electronic formats and tools
to provide better value and services, they compare the reporting tools offered by are made-to-measure in co-operation
made their tools available to customers. the leaseco’s. with our customers. As part of our con-
Common tools include car ordering, sultative approach, we help them define
the right set of reports including the for-
mats and interfaces. At Daimler Fleet
Management, we believe that reports
alone hardly ever create real trans-
parency. Tools are only the first step, it’s
the joint evaluation of these reports that
ensures a fleet’s long-term efficiency.”
Alphabet sees some clients using its
reporting tools very intensely whereas
others are using them in only a very limi-
ted way. Again, the company provides a
standard online system, which
is used by many fleet decision
makers on a daily basis. In
addition, Alphabet generates
offline ad-hoc reports as
requested by the client.
All the leasing companies we
spoke to conduct business
across Europe with clients
All the leasing companies we that operate in several mem-
FleetEurope Magazine 51
Jörg Essig, head of corporate sales at Daimler Financial “One of the main obstacles in international electronic
Services : “Tools are only the first step, it’s the joint evaluation fleet reporting is the poor level of European
of reports that ensures a fleet’s long-term efficiency.” harmonization,” says Dr Nancy Storp of Alphabet.
Dr Nancy Storp, Alphabet’s head of inter- challenges we faced included translating tity of information available, GE Capital
national sales and marketing explains. currency and metric unit data based on provides training guides available to cus-
“One of the main obstacles in interna- differing business rules. We were able tomers the day that they obtain their
tional electronic fleet reporting is the to overcome these by setting standard- login and password to the system.”
poor level of European harmonization,” ized corporate data business rules and ALD Automotive was the first leasing
says Dr Storp. “Local market parame- definitions. We make use of a state of the company in Britain to fit telematics to all
ters are unfortunately still quite diverse, art business objects system and our cor- its cars as standard. The company had its
e.g. taxes in different countries. porate data warehouse uses many own reasons for doing this, but the
Consequently, one integrated reporting advanced technical features.” benefits are passed on to customers
system for all European countries is still Michael Goodbody at GE Capital has who choose to take up the service. The
one of the big challenges the leasing identified client training as key to helping company sees the integration of real-
time, two-way communications between
vehicles and leasing companies as the
“ The main benefit of a performing reporting tool is to next significant milestone in electronic
enable a management-by-exception. ” fleet reporting.
Shane Dowling, ALD’s head of interna-
tional sales, cites exception reporting as
industry is facing. Since European back- them get the best out of GE’s iManage one of the company’s most effective
office systems are often quite different pan-European reporting tools. tools. “The main benefit of a performing
from country to country, they mostly do “Fleet managers need to fully understand reporting tool is to enable a manage-
not provide harmonized datafields and the capabilities of the reporting tools in ment-by-exception, instead of going
standard interfaces with electronic repor- order to select and prepare the critical through every vehicle individually and
ting systems across countries.” dashboards that will allow them to drive checking for the different key criteria.
fleet efficiencies,” says Goodbody. On a day-to-day basis, reports on
Two-way communication “GE Capital and its key solutions team upcoming maintenance, fuel exception
LeasePlan International believes its wealth offer support and training to the fleet reports and accident reports, allow fleet
FleetEurope Magazine 51
of knowledge and international expe- managers in helping them selecting managers to guide and monitor their
rience have helped it to crack this nut. appropriate information, reporting for- drivers for improved safety and reduced
John Houtsma, global co-ordination mat and frequency. On top of our team costs.”
director, says: “While developing of dedicated consultants helping fleet I
International FleetReporting, the main managers to navigate through the quan-
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Martyn MOORE
ndependent fleet software developers Interfaces with a client’s other business mycompanyfleet business manager.
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He told Fleet Europe: “bynxFLEET offers pliers provide electronic billing in a more
a ‘reporting layer’, providing open access or less standardized format.”
to the customer so they can interact with
the most popular end user reporting tools Multitude of interfaces
such as Oracle Business Intelligence The epyx 1link Service Network has
Reporting and Hyperion, Business established itself as a link between lea-
Objects and Crystal. Basic ODBC sing companies and their service, main-
drivers allow direct connection to appli- tenance and repair providers. Its e-com-
cations such as MS Excel.” merce system speeds up the
Gary Jefferies would like to see data authorisation and administration of
coming into fleet management systems to jobs and gives greater accuracy of data.
have similar levels of compatibility. Ken Trinder, head of business deve-
“By enabling the data from all sources lopment at epyx, says it offers cost
to be of a service-orientated architec- savings, too. “1link Service Network is
ture (open architecture), and by the use all about reducing cost through an
of web services, the industry will be improved process. Without the platform,
able to provide a real-time and robust nearly all fleet service and maintenance
single source. This is an area Bynx is has to be booked and authorised by
investing in heavily – the single source of phone and fax. In contrast, with 1 link Peter Hennion, general manager of EuroFleeting :
“The next milestone will be the possibility to have
truth.” Service Network a large portion is ‘real cost reporting’ instead of ‘contract reporting’.”
Sometimes it’s not easy for consultants approved by the platform automatically
to get access to the data. Peter Hennion in line with standard parameters put in
is the general manager of EuroFleeting, a place by fleet managers. Studies show rated when these are exceeded. This
company that specialises in providing that a single 1link online transaction makes reporting proactive rather than
pan-European reporting across multiple replaces seven pieces of paper to be reactive and automatically brings issues
suppliers using supplier invoices to give processed.” which need tackling to the attention of
an accurate view of total cost of owner- Automated data feeds and avoiding the fleet manager.”
ship (TCO). EuroFleeting would like to information overload are important to Ashley Sowerby, managing director of
see more openness from leasing com- CFC Solutions, too. Managing director Chevin Fleet Solutions claims similar suc-
panies. Neville Briggs is proud of his products’ cesses. “An example of this is a
FleetWave client who on average
purchases Euro 30 million of diesel
“ Sometimes it’s not easy for consultants to get per annum from a number of fuel
access to the data. ” providers. Previously this data was man-
ually downloaded by the client and
updated into FleetWave. However, by
“Leasing companies are not interested in adaptability for international clients. working with the client and their suppliers,
showing real cost reporting,” claims “Our international systems can be con- this data is now ‘pushed’ by the supplier
Hennion. “Competition between leasing figured on a whole fleet or country-by- to an SFTP site and FleetWave continually
companies is driven by the price of the country basis. Data from fuel card com- ‘polls’ and looks for the data before
contract. Extra charges are often hidden panies, insurers, IT systems and many importing it automatically. This allows
and I have the impression leasing com- more are drawn automatically into the the client to manage any transactions
panies are not interested in making these core fleet manager system. Some of our by exception, saving time and money
costs really transparent. If a customer fleet users run systems with up to 20 such and putting the onus on the supplier to
could see the different refurbishment external interfaces, completely avoiding provide the data to the client, rather
costs charged by the different leasing the errors associated with manually key- than the client having to search for the
companies, this would be taken into con- ing information. data they have already paid for.”
FleetEurope Magazine 51
sideration when selecting a new provider. “The most important principle within our I
“I think that the next milestone will be the software is exception reporting. The fleet
possibility to have ‘real cost reporting’ manager sets up a range of parameters
instead of ‘contract reporting’. This will covering all kinds of aspects of fleet
only be possible if across Europe all sup- operations and a notification is gene-
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FOCUS ICT & Telematics
Martyn MOORE