How Location Data makes life easier for smart mobility and fleet management companies

Italy ranks fourth in the world in car thefts with 231 cases per 100,000 people. This is particularly concerning to fleet and mobility companies. Investment in their assets is significant, so knowing their location is critical to business success. Targa Telematics, one of the largest European asset and fleet management solution providers, uses TomTom location technology for asset tracking and telematic services, such as stolen vehicle recovery and crash reports.

Meet Targa Telematics

Targa Telematics is an IT company with decades of experience in connected vehicles. It provides technological solutions in telematics, smart mobility and digital Internet of Things (IoT) platforms for mobility operators. The company addresses short and long-term renters, large finance companies and large fleets with a range of services from insurance telematics to asset and fleet management, remote diagnostics and telemetry for vehicles, professional and construction-site vehicles, and extending to the management of airport service vehicles.

Targa has been a pioneer in smart mobility since its founding. Thanks to its innovative technology, Targa helps its customers to embrace connectivity and the switch to electric vehicles and supports the sustainable development of cities. They provide expertise, an IoT platform, and a wide selection of software modules and microservices to create new mobility products with extremely short lead times and with appeal, performance and stability to provide fulfilling experiences for users in the digital age.

Many of today’s vehicles are “connected” through telematics sensors and apps. This source data helps to identify the location of the vehicle and can also be used to perform trip analysis and to find the best routes. This data can help to monitor fuel consumption and verify that driving behavior is safe by analyzing indicators such as cornering, braking, exceeding speed limits and frequency of abrupt accelerations. The Targa IoT platform leverages this technology to provide valuable insights. But to help ensure geospatial visibility, they’re always in need of the best location data available.

The industry challenge: keeping track of vehicle location and performance

Fleet and mobility operators have an important job. They need to know the location of their fleet vehicles at all times. They need to know whether the drivers of those vehicles are taking safe and efficient routes. And they need to monitor the safety of driving behavior. All in compliance with national (or local) privacy regulations.

Knowing where each asset in your commercial fleet is located can make all the difference between business success or failure. With thousands of vehicles being stolen annually, vehicle theft is an unfortunate reality. This translates to hundreds of thousands of euros in capital costs that negatively impact fleet management companies’ bottom line.

Equally important is understanding the driving routes being taken. Are drivers taking the safest, most efficient routes? Doing so will reduce distance driven, fuel consumption, and limit CO2 emissions. Lastly, understanding driving behavior can reduce fines and extend the life of the vehicle.

Asset managers value this data to help protect company-owned vehicles and to aid in stolen vehicle recovery, while fleet managers demand this information for cost monitoring, journey management and real-time vehicle monitoring. In addition, smart mobility operators need these insights to manage public and corporate car sharing applications and to make them more efficient.

The solution: Location technology provides enhanced visibility

Targa knows that the success of its platform is enhanced by the quality of the location data it references. Following recent benchmark studies, the company switched to the use of TomTom data. Targa made the switch to TomTom for several reasons. Their benchmark studies found TomTom data quality to be robust and efficient. The product was easily integrated into the Targa platform. TomTom terms of service were comparable but provided a superior commercial package that allows Targa to better invest in their portfolio, while offering more flexible business models to their customers.

TomTom’s Search API is integrated into Targa’s wide and advanced telematics, telemetry and smart mobility solution portfolio. This includes TomTom’s Reverse Geocoding API, which allows customers to understand where their fleets are located. TomTom’s Routing APIs enables Targa customers to perform trip analyses and find the best routes and TomTom’s Map Display API used to depict asset locations on a screen.

Improved safety, increased savings, environmental protection – Fleet and mobility operators stand to benefit

Targa develops complete and customizable IoT and Smart Mobility solutions, and advanced digital platforms, for mobility operators. They enable new business models, fit for purpose, that deliver financial and human capital savings, improve safety, and help to protect the environment. With the adoption of TomTom technology, Targa customers derive discreet and highly accurate location information. TomTom’s enhanced commercial terms allow Targa to offer more flexible business models to their customers. As a result, Targa customers are now better positioned for improved customer service and overall cost savings.

“

Targa Telematics has always been at the forefront in supporting businesses to meet the consistently growing need of a more sustainable and secure approach to mobility. Given this evolving scenario, we want to continue on this path. Through our relationship with TomTom, our customers will continue benefitting from innovative solutions with outstanding coverage across Europe.

Giorgia Paladin

Head of Procurement at Targa Telematics

What does the future hold?

Targa will continue to focus on enhancing their digital platform. Through broadened customization of their services, Targa will grow with their customers. Over time, mobility players will change, moving from one segment to another. Through the flexibility provided in their custom solutions, leveraging TomTom location technology, Targa Telematics will support their customers throughout their digital transformation. Ultimately, the goal is to improve asset visibility, reducing cost impact caused by theft, and driving efficiency through safe routing.

This solution demonstrates that smart mobility and fleet management companies, working with TomTom location technology, can derive operational cost savings and improved customer satisfaction, while helping to ensure a safer, cleaner, congestion-free world.

To learn more, visit TomTom's fleet management page, or contact us.