For the 10 to 20 percent of asset managers who use telematics data, wading through the hundreds of pieces of information from each machine in the fleet often seems not worth the effort. For some, they yearn to turn off the unwanted and constant “pinging” of alerts; others just want to figure out a way to incorporate a few key pieces of information into a single report.
According to managers and telematics providers alike, this morass of data is a key reason telematics as a management tool remains mired. No one denies that telematics holds great potential for the asset manager to capture and track key machine performance data. Nor does anyone deny that using the data to build cost history and provide operating guidance enables managers to field more reliable and efficient fleets.
But with fewer than one in five fleets taking the step to actually implement telematics into their management process, the gap between technology and real-world benefit is wide. The Association of Equipment Management Professionals (AEMP) identified that gap more than two years ago and decided to bridge it. Initial discussions among fleet managers, OEMs and telematics providers found that integration into fleet-management systems was expensive, time-consuming, or even impossible. It identified the need for a generic report that would provide key machine data in a manner easily integrated into a fleet’s management software system, regardless of the type of system in place. AEMP then created a telematics standard development subcommittee to hash out the details.
