German car maker BMW is combining its telematics with connected transportation technology from Canadian company Geotab so fleet operators can benefit from intelligent near real-time data and integrated telematics.

The combination of BMW’s data and the Geotab platform provides fleet operators with turnkey connectivity. Fleets, leasing and rental companies, car sharing and ride-hailing organisations can benefit from intelligent data to make near real-time decisions on fleet performance. This includes productivity, compliance and driver safety. 

In addition, analytics can feed into sustainability efforts as well as the CSRD (corporate sustainability reporting directive) report, which will be mandatory for certain companies in the EU from 2024 onwards. For example, fleet operators can use the Geotab platform to help optimise routes, increase fuel efficiency, identify electrification potential and reduce idling times based on their vehicle data. The platform processes the collected data sets into useful information, providing fleet managers with insights to understand the performance of their fleet.

Integrated telematics functions of BMW vehicles can be combined with the MyGeotab platform’s tools. Users benefit from first-hand, high-quality OEM data aggregated in the manufacturer-neutral platform, through which they can manage their entire fleet. The partnership provides fleet operators with a single point of access to make informed decisions and provide connectivity for fleets of all sizes. Activation is contactless via remote access and requires no workshop visit, saving time and costs.

“Cooperating with a major globally renowned and leading brand like BMW Group marks an important milestone in our strategy to become a trusted partner for OEMs,” said David Savage, vice president of Geotab. “Working with specialised telematics companies offers many advantages for vehicle manufacturers and customers. OEMs do not have to build their own infrastructures for data analysis and visualisation but can rather feed their data into the telematics platform via the cloud using modern APIs. Customers still receive all OEM-specific data points, optimally processed and integrated with other fleet data to provide a rounded, 360-degree view of their fleet operations.”

The MyGeotab platform can integrate proprietary OEM data from a range of manufacturers, including BMW, Renault, Ford, Peugeot, Citroen, Opel, Vauxhall, DS and Mercedes-Benz, as well as data from Geotab’s own retrofitted telematic device. 

The software integrates fully electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in hybrids (PHEV) as well as conventional internal combustion engines (ICE) and takes the relevant data points for each powertrain into account. Depending on their needs, users can choose between different plans for data access. Geotab users can choose from various pre-configured rate plans.

This allows for a consistent picture of the entire fleet, across all brands, model years and drive types. This way, the data from different sources are not only integrated and synchronised, but also brought together and presented to the fleet managers in a uniform, overarching manner.

The Geotab and BMW (www.bmw.com) OEM agreement is available from this month in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and UK.

Geotab (www.geotab.com) provides vehicle and asset tracking telematics to over 47,000 customers in 150 countries. It connects over 3.6 million vehicles and process more than 55 billion data points a day so users can make better decisions, increase productivity, have safer fleets, and achieve their sustainability goals.