Several years ago I was asked what I thought were the most progressive trends in fleet management. My answer included the advancement of GPS- based telematics. At the time, telematics had been promoted for a number years, but had yet to achieve broad market acceptance — many telematics companies were struggling and a number had even closed up shop. The few that remained had basic offerings that supported the transport industry to track routes and driver productivity, which amounted to a watchdog supervisory solution for delivery employees. But for the most part, telematics wasn’t viable technology because of its high cost, perception of limited benefits and a general aversion to the idea that it was “big brother” technology.
The fact is that when I answered the question, telematics was in the early phase of its “S” curve of market penetration. This phase sees purchases by a small percentage of the potential market called “early adopters,” pioneers attracted to new technolgy and willing to pay a high price. Market penetration rises slowly from nothing to about 10 to 20 percent, and prices start to fall as higher rates of production produce economies of scale. In turn, lower costs and a growth in capablities and appllications prompt a rapid increase in sales and market penetration, until the product is regarded as “mainstream.” And voila! Suddenly everyone’s using it, that means “so must we,” and the technology is reaping benefits never imagined at the beginning.
Today, GPS- based telematics offers so much to fleets and consumers that’s it’s impossible to ignore. If we begin to think in terms of “connected vehicles” instead of GPS or telematics — the outcomes it can achieve rather than the details of how it works — we can imagine an almost limitless number of uses.
A recent example is a new type of auto insurance. It’s called UBI, short for “Usage-Based Insurance.” Premiums are based on actual miles driven and how you drive (like the time of day, where you drive and how fast). One insurer, Progressive, claims that streaming data of their policyholders’ actual driving behavior is twice as powerful in predicting risk than other traditional profile information.
So this makes me ask: who wouldn’t want connectivity? Who wouldn’t want to be connected? Why would anyone ever thnk of being connected as anything less than necessary or desirable? It’s now the cultural norm to be connected 24/7/365. Why shouldn’t we leverage our perpetually connected society to make drivers and our fleets safer?