Geotab, a vendor selling m2m fleet transport telematics technology, and Telefónica have agreed to partner in Europe. The agreement will initially focus on the markets of Spain, Germany and the U.K. with the intention to explore Latin American markets in the near future, the two companies said.
The combo “offers real time fleet management and the ability to develop a number of alerts, notifications, and review driver trip and activity reports. Advanced features also include on-board diagnostics through engine indicators to return feedback, such as engine failures, or an in-depth engine fault code diagnosis; detect accidents and retrace cause of the accident; and allow add-ons such as a navigational device, NFC driver ID key, sensors and more,” the firms said in a statement.
A report from Juniper Research pegged the announcement as “quite significant.”
“The fact that such deals are being struck illustrates an important point – that telematics is well ahead of other industry sectors when it comes to M2M development, even if others hold more promise in terms of units connected (smart metering) or eventual pervasiveness (healthcare, but that is a seriously long way off),” Juniper said. “Fleet management is already high-tech. Real-time fleet management and the ability to develop a number of alerts, notifications, and review driver trip and activity reports are standard now-a-days (all of which are offered by Telefonica and Geotab). On the engine management side of things, on-board diagnostics through engine indicators can feedback engine failures and engine fault code diagnosis.”