Capital Equipment News May 2021

TELEMATICS

The services provided by the Scania proprietary telematics solution includes Fleet Position; Service Planning; Driver Evaluation and Vehicle Performance.

Scania CONNECTED SERVICES – fleet management at your fingertips

Telematics systems have become an integral part of heavy commercial vehicles. Capital Equipment News approached Scania for its take on the OEM versus third-party telematics debate, and to find out more about its offerings in this field. By Mark Botha.

S cania connected services manager Shiraz ing a transport operation, but it allows OEMs to gain better understanding of the specific needs and operations of the customers we serve.” He says truck OEMs’ telematics data quality and integrity are more precise “as they are inherently part of the vehicle”. “OEM telematics allows truck manufacturers to perform remote diagnostics on their vehicles to be more proactive in servicing the end-user, as well as to develop improve- ments to their products.” Pros and cons Hashimbhai includes as advantages of third-party telematics systems in trucks the fact that telematics is the core business of these service providers. Hashimbhai says telematics and real-time data are increasingly becoming a necessity, opening up numerous possibilities to solutions providers. “Not only is telematics fundamental to manag-

“They are therefore able to create and adapt add-on func- tions to their telematics systems faster than truck OEMs can. Some of these third-party solution providers are recognised as stolen-vehicle recovery solutions that meet insurance companies’ requirements.” He says the disadvantages of third-party systems include the fact that they rely on OEMs to grant them access to vehi- cle operational data such as odometer readings. “It is not possible to link other Scania systems to third-party telematics solutions for value-added benefits such as service bookings. Issues with the control unit of software can result in additional downtime and conse- quential damage due to poor installation.” Among the advantages of OEM-installed systems is the fact that these systems are fully integrated with the vehicle and that more technical information is available for analysis. There are also no installation costs nor downtime required to fit OEM telematics systems. “The disadvantage of OEM telematics systems is that they

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CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS MAY 2021