Telematics began as GPS tracking used exclusively by the US military. In 1985, it found its way into everyday life with simple applications like panic buttons in cars to call for help.
Now, here’s the irony: today telematics isn’t about reacting to panic. It’s about preventing it. For fleet owners, it’s the tool that brings peace, control, and confidence. It helps stop issues before they spiral into problems.
Want to see what it’s like to manage a fleet with a telematics-based system? This article explains how telematics works, shares real-life success stories from five fleet managers, and helps you decide if it’s the tool your team has been missing.
What is fleet management telematics?
Fleet telematics is what helps companies track data from their vehicles and equipment to better manage and improve their fleet. It combines GPS vehicle tracking with onboard diagnostics to provide much more than just vehicle locations. You also get real-time insights into speed, fuel usage, driver behavior, mileage, and even engine health.
A little telematics trivia for you: Two French government officials coined the term "télématique” in 1978. This was in a report to the government about the computerization of society. The term originally meant transferring information via telecommunications, combining "télécommunications" (telecommunications) and "informatique" (computing). Today, in commerce, telematics refers to tracking and managing vehicles, including many business applications — from courier services to emergency fleets.
But here’s the thing: raw fleet telematics data isn’t useful. On its own, it won’t do much for you. That’s where fleet management systems step in. They decode and bring this data to you in a neat interface. Whether it’s visualizing fuel trends or tracking maintenance schedules, these systems put the power of telematics in your hands.
What is a telematics fleet management system?
A fleet telematics system is the combined solution of:
- a telematics device. This hardware (often called a black box) is installed in the vehicle and connected to the OBD-II or CAN-BUS port. It collects data like speed, acceleration, location, fuel consumption, and driver behavior and sends it via cellular networks to the cloud.
- cloud-based platform. This software receives, decodes, and displays the collected data in a way that's easy to understand and use.
The system doesn’t stop there. Fleet telematics often integrates with other tools like dash cameras, electronic logging devices (ELDs), and even weather alerts. This combination puts fleet managers in the driver’s seat, helping them across many business areas:
Areas where GPS fleet tracking help
How do these benefits translate into real-life results? Here’s how your colleagues in the field use telematics for better fleet operations.
Peek into the day of fellow fleet managers that use Fleet Chaser and see how fleet telematics help their operations
Meet real Fleet Chaser users who’ve seen the benefits of fleet vehicle telematics firsthand.
But first, sorry, what the heck is Fleet Chaser? It’s a telematics-based system designed for fleet management in construction, landscaping, and service industries. It delivers real-time data from vehicles and heavy equipment in an intuitive way, helping managers make smarter decisions about their fleet, headache-free.
Our users have been running Fleet Chaser for months, and the results are clear: smarter fleets, fewer headaches — and no more panic.
Let’s see how that went.
A day in the life of a fleet manager and how fleet vehicle telematics help
A late vehicle throws off your schedule.
A client demands answers you don’t have.
A sudden breakdown drains time and money you can’t afford to lose.
Every fleet manager knows the frustration of juggling phone calls, chasing down updates, and solving problems on the fly.
What if, instead of constantly scrambling for answers, you had real-time answers at your fingertips? So that you could stay ahead instead of catching up?
Let’s take a look at five Fleet Chaser users who rely on telematics to manage their fleets headache-free:
- Billy caught employees sneaking off to do non-client work with company equipment.
- Jeff avoids expensive repairs with predictive maintenance.
- Mark protects his fleet from false — and costly — accident claims.
- David reduces unnecessary driving time and slashes fuel consumption.
- Vlad avoids billing challenges thanks to automated records of job site logs.
Billy from Lake Norman Turf catches time-wasting habits and boosts employee accountability
It’s 8:00 AM, and Billy, the owner of the landscaping company Lake Norman Turf, Inc., is already logged into Fleet Chaser. He starts his morning routine by checking the route history and activity logs for his fleet. This way, he catches small inefficiencies, like employees taking 90-minute lunches but claiming only 30.
But then he discovered the system could do much more:
“When you add real-time features to your equipment, you can see if your employees are making money off of your equipment by mowing non-client yards!” Billy admits.
With real-time GPS tracking, Billy put an end to resource misuse and tightened employee accountability. The impact was immediate. “The trackers paid for themselves in the first month from the savings we saw,” he shares.
Fleet managers can see how and where their vehicles move in real time
So now, Billy and his team make sure that every asset is used exactly as it should be.
Jeff from Blythe avoids costly repairs with predictive maintenance
For Jeff, a fleet manager at machine manufacturing company Blythe, catching problems early is the name of the game. And he can simply do so with Fleet Chaser’s diagnostic alerts.
By mid-morning, Jeff is reviewing the dashboard for vehicle maintenance updates. When the system flags a potential engine issue on one of his trucks, Jeff doesn’t have to wait for a breakdown. Scheduling a repair right away, he avoids costly downtime and headaches.
“Fleet Chaser's maintenance features are an absolute must-have,” Jeff says. “The log, tracker, and alerts ensure that our vehicles are always on the ready.”
Fleet managers can see maintenance schedules with engine condition or oil changes on Fleet Chaser dashboard
With instant access to fault codes and detailed maintenance logs, Jeff can fix maintenance problems fast, keeping his fleet on track. Neat, isn’t it?
Mark from Value Waste protects his fleet and avoids costly claims
For Mark, the operations manager at a waste management company, fleet telematics means added visibility into his vehicles’ location and driver behavior. And added visibility? Safer driving and fewer liability risks.
See, one of Mark’s trucks was recently involved in a traffic incident. But thanks to GPS data and in-cab dash camera footage, he proved his vehicle wasn’t at fault.
Dual dashcams capture both driver and the road.
“I’ve been able to prove my trucks weren’t involved in several accidents using GPS coordinates and camera footage,” Mark shares. “This system has saved us tons of money by avoiding false claims.”
Dashcams provide critical evidence if road accidents happen.
Mark’s telematics system doesn’t just protect his fleet after the fact — it helps prevent accidents before they happen. His vehicles, equipped with dual dashcams and real-time telematics devices, share critical data instantly. This might include:
- a red LED warning to alert a driver of risky behavior
- detailed reports showing where a driver is consistently speeding
- areas with frequent incidents
The presence of dashcams also discourages distracted behaviors like texting or scrolling through phones. As Mark’s experience shows, the combination of real-time data and video footage does make a big difference for safety and accountability.
To adopt dashcams, fleet companies can buy and install cameras themselves (and then figure out how to collect and analyze the data) or choose a fleet management platform that does it all for them. With Fleet Chaser, you get the full package — dual dashcams that capture both the road and the driver, a platform to organize and analyze footage, and alerts for risky behaviors like hard braking or collisions. This lets you address issues quickly without sifting through hours of footage.
David from David Rogers Grading cuts fuel costs with smarter routing
No immediate access to data about his vehicles and equipment meant constant guesswork for David, the owner of David Rogers Grading. He had to rely on assumptions, incomplete information, and time-consuming communication to figure out things like which vehicle was closest to a job site or how to reroute trucks to avoid sudden traffic delays.
Now, those challenges are history. As David reviews his fleet’s route reports in Fleet Chaser, he knows exactly where every vehicle is, what it’s doing, and what vehicle is best for the job.
“Its [Fleet Chaser’s] load tracking and route reports have been absolutely crucial for our business,” David says.
With GPS trackers providing real-time data, David can make smart decisions on the fly. Need to assign the closest truck to a client? Done. Need to reroute a driver to avoid a storm? Easy.
With Fleet Chaser’s up-to-the-minute, fully customizable map, fleet managers can use weather, traffic, and location data to plan routes.
This kind of visibility doesn’t just keep David’s fleet running smoothly — it reduces driving time and cuts fuel costs. For businesses like his, that’s a win all around.
Vlad from Landmark Materials skips billing nightmares
As the day winds down, Vlad, the owner of a landscaping company, reviews the reports he generated with Fleet Chaser to wrap up client billing. Before, manual tracking of service times was just a headache the size of a garbage truck. “Being in the know about our team's whereabouts was a struggle,” he shares.
Now, with GPS tracking and tools like customizable geofences and location-based alerts, billing has never been easier. When a vehicle enters or exits a job site, Vlad gets an automatic notification. This gives him precise service times to include in his invoices.
“Being able to keep up with the hours enables us to charge clients accurately. Fleet Chaser continues to save us a TON of money and allows us to give our clients better timing and a better product,” Vlad explains.
Fleet Chaser shows exactly when your vehicles arrive and leave and how long they actually spend on the job, creating automated reports for fast billing.
So now, Vlad can see exactly when vehicles arrive at a job site, how long they stay, and when they leave — down to the minute. This helps him offer better timing and higher-quality service to his clients. And, with more landscaping projects rolling in, the surroundings keep looking better and better :)
Telematics and fleet management: A power couple to power up your work day
From morning route reviews to evening billing checks, fleet management telematics solutions fit seamlessly into every aspect of a fleet manager’s day. The challenges those Fleet Chasers experience may vary, but the takeaway is clear: with fleet telematics, every moment is an opportunity to save time, money, and stress.
Let’s recap the real-life benefits of fleet telematics:
How does telematics for fleet management work?
Telematics combines GPS technology and onboard diagnostics to track vehicle locations and monitor performance. For this, you need to plug in a small telematics device into the OBD II or CAN-BUS port, so that it’d collect and transmit data.
Inside this telematics device are key hardware components like:
- GPS tracker: Tracks vehicle location.
- Accelerometer: Monitors speed and movement.
- SIM card: Sends data via cellular or satellite networks.
- Engine interface: Collects and processes data from the vehicle’s engine systems.
- Input/output interface (expander port): Enables connectivity with additional sensors or devices.
Once the telematics device is plugged in, it starts collecting vehicle data. A SIM card in the device sends this data over the cellular network to the fleet management system, where the fleet manager can analyze it later on dashboards or reports.
Fleet telematics data is sent from the vehicle to the fleet management software portal.
What data can you collect with a telematics device, and why does it matter?
Telematics devices can track a wide range of data to help you better manage your fleet. Here are just a few examples:
- Location and trip data: GPS timestamps, speed, direction, time spent at locations, driving and idle times, route adherence, distance traveled, speeding instances
- Vehicle status and maintenance: Ignition status, odometer readings, battery voltage, fuel levels, fuel consumption, harsh acceleration or braking, and diagnostic trouble codes, failure type information
- Driver data: driver IDs, vehicle identification numbers (VINs), wheel-based speed, cruise control use, engine load, accelerator position, axle weight, and brake usage.
This data is invaluable to plan maintenance and stay compliant with regulations. Telematics can help with tasks like IFTA fuel tax reporting, electronic driver logs, and vehicle inspection reports, making the burden of legal responsibilities a bit simpler.
Here’re some helpful reports you can generate with fleet telematics data in Fleet Chaser:
- IFTA reports with state mileage data
- Location reports to help with billing and project management
- Vehicle usage reports to track overused or underused vehicles
- Vehicle odometer reports to spot older vehicles that need replacing
And that’s just the beginning:
Generate custom reports with the telematics data from your vehicles in Fleet Chaser
So what’s the big deal with fleet telematics solutions?
Managing a fleet is full of questions that need quick and smart answers:
- Where are my vehicles right now?
- Are my drivers following safe practices?
- How much money are we wasting on fuel or idling?
Fleet telematics helps you answer all of these questions — and more. It collects real-time data from each of your vehicles and brings it together in a fleet management software. This way, you can see what’s working and what needs improvement.
Fleet Chaser wraps all of the key telematics data into one easy-to-use application. No long-term contracts. No juggling tools that don’t talk to each other. Just one package to help you run your fleet smarter. And with ‘truly top-notch customer support,’ you’re never left hanging (always happy to help, Vasily!):
Book a demo to see firsthand how fleet telematics could help your business. Our experts are always ready to walk you through the specifics.
