Geotab Helps Clients Go Electric

The Business of Mobility is a series of articles featuring business leaders in sustainable mobility.  

Q&A with François Denis (Country Manager France of Geotab) and Ross Douglas (Founder at Autonomy)  

Geotab provides telematics for vehicles, which they layer with their own SaaS solutions to offer fleet managers, and other clients, useful analytics for reducing costs and automating operations. Geotab is headquartered in Ontario, Canada, with offices in the USA, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, the UK, Ireland and France. Its products and services are used in 153 countries. Geotab’s founder, Neil Cawse, remains at the helm, 23 years on from establishing the company in 2000. 

Ross: We last interviewed Geotab almost exactly two years ago. How have things gone since then?

François: Back then we had maybe 2 million vehicles using our telematics, and now it’s 3.2 million, so it’s growing fast, and we are the biggest telematics company in the world. 

Ross: Who owns these vehicles? Is it corporate fleets, or commercial fleets doing deliveries…

François: Yes, it could be commercial fleets, or company fleets. Our typical client is something like a delivery company, which is handling e-commerce sales, which means it is dealing with real complexity in moving packages around the city. We deal with all types of vehicles: from light commercial vehicles (the most common category) through to trucks, buses, and heavy machinery. It’s the same telematics device in all vehicles. The device pushes the data to a platform; clients can choose our fleet management platform, or their own platform. More and more new vehicles come equipped with a telematics device. We can then push this OEM data to the Geotab platform, because we have partnered with most of the vehicle manufacturers.

Ross: What’s the commercial case for the client?

François: Clients can typically pay for their investment (ROI) in eight months by saving on things like maintenance and fuel.  

Ross: How do you help clients save on fuel? 

François: Driver behaviour is one important way. The telematics device includes an accelerometer and a gyroscope, which lets you monitor how efficiently and safely the driver is behaving. This helps reduce accidents and promote energy-efficient driving, like not braking too hard or accelerating too fast. Efficient drivers can reduce fuel consumption by as much as 35%.

Safe driving is also important. An accident is hugely disruptive to operations, so reducing that risk by just 10% or 20% can make a big difference. Plus, you can save on insurance. Then there’s other issues like security and improved vehicle maintenance that we help with. Hence the very quick turnaround on your investment. 

Ross: How many of those 3.2 million connected vehicles are electric? 

François: I can tell that for France it’s something like 16% EVs, and if you include PHEVs, then we’re looking at 22%. 

Ross: Are you promoting EV adoption?

François: Yes, we produce various studies and guides that help businesses go electric. You can see more here. We are advocates for the transition. Our technology works well with electric; we have around 280 EV models which are compatible with Geotab, and we’re very focused on adding new models as they come onto the market. It’s one of our unique selling points, that we’re able to integrate new EVs into a fleet.

Ross: In terms of the overall environment (including regulatory), do you think the conditions are right for EV adoption. 

François: I can’t speak for other markets, but in Europe you have a very proactive regulatory environment, with the EU mandating that for fleets over 100 vehicles, 10% of the renewals must be electric already in 2022, and up to 70% in 2030. The regulation is complicated, but the point is that fleet owners need not worry about regulation, because switching to EVs is not a disadvantage, it’s an opportunity. For example, our studies show that for France, fleets can switch 50% of their vehicles to electric, without compromising their operations. What’s more, by doing so you save 8,600Euros per vehicle over seven years, excluding incentives. Which means, for a country like France that offers generous EV incentives, you’re going to save a lot more than 8,600 Euros. 

Ross: Can your software help fleet managers decide which vehicles are best suited for the transition from combustion to electric. 

François: We offer an electric vehicle suitability assessment (EVSA). It’s a simple method that monitors usage of current ICE vehicles, and then shows which ones are ripe for EV replacement, and what sort of  EV would be suitable. The study shows the client that they don’t need more charging infrastructure; it’s just a straight swap, with guaranteed savings in fuel and emissions. 

Ross: Charging infrastructure, and the operational complexity of lower-range vehicles that have long refuelling times; all of this must be a concern for fleet managers thinking of going electric. 

François: Yes, with EVs you need to manage the batteries: ensuring you have enough charge for the journey, that the charge stations are being optimally used, that the right vehicles are being charged at the right time, etc. Our system solves these problems. IoT is the way to go in terms of ensuring that EVs are just as operationally convenient as ICEs. We can give clients that assurance. 

Ross: How do you help companies with car sharing?

François: We offer fleet clients keyless solutions for carsharing. We also have systems for car sharing operators, but we don’t directly compete in that industry. We rather play a supportive role to those who offer the complete carsharing software solution for B2C operations. Ultimately, our business is focused on B2B.  

Ross:  What are the implications of telematics for sustainable mobility? 

François: Vehicle telematics is very important for auditing purposes, in terms of proving to the government, or to investors, that your fleet is reducing its emissions; giving them accurate data on annual emissions reductions. We have a saying in Geotab that ‘you can only manage what you can measure’. The only way to prove that you are reducing your carbon footprint is through telematics. So, in terms of the move to sustainability and ESG, we’re going to be hearing much more about telematics. 

Ross: That’s encouraging. Many thanks for your time.