Transforming the fleet and logistics industry with Omnitracs and TomTom

It's not easy to execute a successful fleet operation. Safety, route optimization, strategic planning, and video monitoring are just a few of the components needed to ensure the smooth delivery of goods.

We’re going to look into how our integrative partner, Omnitracs, has served as a pioneer in the transportation industry with their innovative solutions designed to help leaders make the most of their operations.

For over 35 years, Omnitracs has been a global transportation leader providing enhanced technology solutions for critical industry needs, including routing, driver workflow, and safety. With their fleet management solutions and enterprise-grade mobility platform, Omnitracs works with TomTom to help industry leaders effectively address challenges in their fleets for the ultimate benefit of their drivers, back-office teams, and customers.

The importance of streamlining fleet operations

With growing consumer demand and changes in the logistics industry, fleet operators are continuously evolving their technologies to optimize operations. Running operations as efficiently as possible — while adhering to customer requirements — is key to meeting and exceeding customer expectations and advancing business success. Businesses need reliable and comprehensive fleet-management systems supported by high-quality, robust, and scalable mapping data. The bigger the fleet, the more complex the management and mapping needs are. But what does successful fleet management look like, and what factors need to be considered?

Comprehensive fleet operations should include route planning and optimization, real-time fleet monitoring, and fuel and driver management. Businesses also need to customize fleet management systems for their specific needs. With the right tools, fleets can operate efficiently, reduce bottom-line costs, and ensure timely deliveries.

The challenges of fleet management

Before delving further into the tools that can enhance fleet operations, it's first essential to look at the challenges fleet operators and managers face today. Being responsible for large fleets across cities or countries comes with unique obstacles that need to be addressed for streamlined operations, such as:

• Safety and security: Drivers are at the core of any logistics company. Fleets can't function without them, but how do managers ensure their safety? The key lies in monitoring and modifying driving behavior and communicating with drivers in real time.

• Fuel costs: Fuel is usually one of the most significant expenses for fleets. It can be a struggle for fleet managers to balance the fleet budget as fuel prices fluctuate. By predicting future fuel consumption, managers can lower operational costs.

• Route planning and optimization: Identifying the most optimal time and delivery windows in day-to-day route planning is a must to ensure goods are delivered safely and on time, but that’s not the only aspect to effective route optimization. Drivers must also remain compliant with local regulations and travel restrictions.

• Visibility: Being unable to monitor assets and vehicles throughout a trip or route can be problematic and lead to cargo theft. Enhanced visibility can better ensure efficient operations, greater support and preparedness for fleet managers, and flexibility to proactively adjust ETAs when problems arise.

• Productivity: For businesses to continue thriving, they need to ensure their teams are able to keep up with customer demands while dedicating their time to other essential tasks. This means it's more important than ever to implement modern solutions that help teams maximize their time and productivity, so they can most effectively serve business and customer needs.

• Time management: Delivering to customers within a specific delivery window holds the key to success for many companies — but sometimes unexpected delays occur. Utilizing historic and real-time traffic trends keeps teams on the right path and customers satisfied.

How Omnitracs provides solutions to fleet challenges

Omnitracs delivers SaaS-based solutions through innovative fleet technologies that help over 14,000 customers manage over one million assets in more than 70 countries. The company pioneered the use of commercial vehicle telematics and vehicle routing solutions over 35 years ago and today serves as a powerhouse of innovative, intuitive technologies. They have transformed the transportation industry through best-in-class solutions for transportation management, safety and security, route planning and optimization, data and analytics, and professional services.

Safety, reliability, efficiency, and productivity are all essential customer benefits that Omnitracs prioritizes — but how do they implement this? The company provides comprehensive solutions for various business models, including solutions focused on:

• Trailer and asset tracking: Disjointed operations sometimes occur from sending the wrong trailer to the wrong location. Monitoring the statuses and locations of various assets can help prevent this and also reduce cargo theft.

• Historical reporting: Data is stored and utilized over time to influence future routes, pinpoint inefficiencies in productivity, and maximize operational savings. With this visibility, fleet managers can remain more in the know on driving and vehicle behavior.

• Process automation: Automated technology can streamline communication between teams, reduce errors brought forth by manual processes, and save business operations time and money.

• Improved safety and compliance: Utilizing modern technologies improves fleet safety and can protect against litigation in the event of an accident. It also ensures that fleets comply with current and future regulations in the industry.

With the Omnitracs platform, companies are given a comprehensive and modular solution suite. One such model is Omnitracs Strategic Planner, which allows fleets to analyze seasonal patterns and optimize routes weeks and even months in advance. Besides providing advanced analytics, it also makes it easier to maximize fleet capacity according to performance and customer needs. With Omnitracs Routing and Dispatch, back-office teams can easily build and modify routes as well as make changes on the fly to minimize costs and meet customer commitments. Further, with Omnitracs Active Alert, customers can gain enhanced visibility with proactive notifications on their order schedule and delivery statuses. Drivers can also be better protected with social distancing through contactless delivery. Finally, with Omnitracs Drive, back-office teams and drivers can gain an enhanced and easy-to-use driver workflow. These solutions will ultimately lead to more satisfied drivers, optimized routes, and maximized savings.

Facilitating operations with real-time and accurate map data

Fleet management isn't complete without adopting the most up-to-date map data. By partnering with location technology specialist TomTom, Omnitracs gains access to global map coverage, vehicle-specific logistics data, and road-speed information. Today, the Omnitracs solution leverages TomTom's power with map data, including speed profiles, address points, and logistics. These powerful tools provide geospatial insights critical to fleet management solutions. TomTom delivers robust and scalable map data that enables fleet and logistics software companies to build fleet solutions that suit the specific business needs of their customers. Using the TomTom location database, Omnitracs can guarantee that customers have accurate geocoding of each depot and service location and complete map visualization.

Determining the optimal route path to and from depots and calculating drive time or ETAs are also foundational factors that can make or break fleet operations. With the Omnitracs time-and-distance matrix builder and route-path algorithms, drivers know they are where they need to be and the arrival times required to meet specific customer time windows.

The Omnitracs solution is further enhanced with the TomTom logistics data set, which considers vehicle attributes, such as the size and weight of cargos, so that commercial drivers follow travel restrictions and compliant routes. Using TomTom map data, Omnitracs can provide proximity alerts to drivers when arriving at a customer location.

Omnitracs has leveraged TomTom data in their route planning and execution products for decades, and their customers have enjoyed consistent and on-time delivery of their goods as a result.

Through their use of the TomTom mapping product suite, Omnitracs end-users benefit from:

• Safety and security: Drivers are assured they are taking the most safe and efficient routes.

• Fuel cost analytics: Back-office teams gain the ability to predict future fuel consumption by pre-defining preferred routes.

• Route planning: Drivers utilize the fastest and most efficient routes possible while maintaining compliance with local regulations and travel restrictions.

• Visibility: Back-office teams can proactively monitor assets and vehicles on a map, ensure driver and cargo safety, and adjust ETAs based on road conditions.

The future of logistics

Running operations as efficiently as possible is key to meeting customer expectations and advancing business success. As customer and business demands change, fleet technologies will continue to evolve. As technologies and needs evolve, Omnitracs and TomTom will continue to help industry leaders meet and exceed the expectations of their customers and teams.

To learn more, visit TomTom's asset and vehicle tracking use-case page, download our brochure, or contact us.