Telematics and the year ahead…
A belated but genuine Happy New year – all best wishes to you and yours for a healthy and prosperous 2023. Please forgive me for being a little self-indulgent in offering a few personal reflections how the year might shape up from a business perspective.
Small fleet management
In the current recessionary environment, business owners must maximize the use of their valued assets (drivers, vehicles) even more! The REDTAIL platform offers automation and user-driven presentation of actionable data to help.
We work to enable easy sign-up, device installation and app usage. And provide location, journey management and driver feedback data with accuracy and immediacy. We have worked to incorporate your feedback into recent releases and will continue to do so. Much to look forward to.
School bus case study
REDTAIL’s fleet management solution provides school district managers with detailed performance information on a vehicle and its driver by tracking and locating vehicles in real-time. Benefits include real-time traffic support, knowing vehicle ignition on/off; mileage data capture; battery health alerts and driver behavior insights.
In addition, operations teams can utilize route efficiency algorithms to maximize fuel consumption, achieving an estimated 18% saving year on year. Utilizing the unique REDTAIL/Zen-tinel technology, monitor when students board and leave the vehicle, and receive a gas reimbursement for mileage when a student is aboard.
Stolen vehicle tracking
There is no sign of a let-up in instances of car theft. REDTAIL has a strong track record in this space through a 30-year relationship with LoJack, Tracker and now CalAmp. In 2022 alone, Redtail Telematics customer Tracker UK recovered 488 vehicles at a total value of £11.8 million.
We hope to bring this technology across the Atlantic in 2023 with potential opportunities in both North and Central America. New geographies, Mexico for example, bring unique requirements.
We are strong in listening and evolving proven tech in response to provide a market-leading solution.
Usage Based Insurance (UBI)
A few months ago, I wrote an article titled ‘the tipping point’. Telematics-based insurance has promised for many years to be the future of motor but has remained confined (in the main) to young drivers paying thousands to justify the cost of the black box. In the last couple of years, not least prompted by a pandemic-driven clamour for ‘fairer’ car insurance, pay by the mile policies have seen unprecedented growth. This proposition is undoubtedly at top of mind for new incumbents to UBI, for reasons of cost, simplicity, and consumer appetite. By Miles in the UK and KOBA in Australia are certainly leading the way in this area.
A second aspect to look forward to is our well-received App’n’Tag proposition, which reduces the ‘black box’ cost by some 80% and also offers a simple consumer experience for immediate use.
These two initiatives may lead us a little closer to the tipping point. However, the last innovation I will comment on is perhaps the bigger initiative…
Connected Vehicle data for UBI
REDTAIL has been appointed Reseller of Connected Vehicle data for UBI for Ford Europe. We said a lot about this in mid-2022 and have continued to evolve our view of this opportunity for both OEMs and Insurers. In the next twelve months, I expect that a couple of narratives will develop:
- The data platforms will be found out: they need IoT insurtechs like Redtail Telematics to turn their junk food data into value for insurers.
- We will continue to explore the diverse datasets available from Auto OEMs, deploying a proof-of-concept approach to help insurers and their actuaries, propositions and claims teams scrutinise sample data and discern value.
- We will continue to work with OEMs to help them understand the size of the opportunity and their positioning within it, the technology roadmap to embrace, and not least, the commercial models available.
So REDTAIL has much to do!
We remain committed to innovating with and beyond customer needs to grow existing and new sales and continue to lead in telematics in all its aspects, from black boxes and their descendants to insightful analytics, data platforms and apps.
Looking forward to 2023!