Fleets either face an abundance of use cases and solutions but limited access to vehicle data, or they have vast amounts of data but little idea what to do with it. Either way, fleet managers are left stuck in the middle.
During the “Vehicle Data Access: What’s a Fleet To Do?” panel at Geotab Connect 2025 — in Orlando, Florida — senior fleet executives shared common challenges and practical approaches to turning data roadblocks into highways of opportunities.
Keys to success
Some companies struggle with insufficient data to run AI workloads. That isn’t the case for United Parcel Service (UPS) Inc, which operates a global fleet of 100,000 vehicles and has significant data resources.
According to Phil Aiello, Vice President of Global Automotive Maintenance & Engineering at UPS, three foundational elements can help overcome many data-related hurdles in fleet operations.
“If you have data quality, data security, and data governance, the rest becomes easier to develop,” he said.
Aiello noted that data quality is central to UPS’s operations and one of the reasons they chose to work with Geotab.
“It’s very important that your data is accurate, and you know the source. Even something as basic as the odometer matters, because you could get that from the ECM (engine control module) or from the dashboard, but you need to be able to trust your source. That’s why we needed a partner that also treats data quality as critical,” he said.
For pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), where fleet vehicles are mostly used by sales representatives visiting healthcare professionals, safety is the main reason for monitoring and extracting vehicle data.
“I try to keep it simple. For us, that means focusing on safety: braking, cornering, acceleration, and seatbelt use. We create a driver score through our fleet management company, and if you’re above 90, you’re a good driver. If you’re above 90 for 12 months and stay at risk level zero, we’ll reward you. If you’re between 80 and 89, it’s the managers’ problem. If you’re below 79, we need to have a conversation,” noted Henry Rogers, Director, North America Fleet Management, GSK.
By working with Volvo and customers like GSK, Geotab has been able to address both immediate and long-term fleet data challenges.
Announced in December 2024, the Volvo-Geotab partnership aimed to reduce the friction fleet managers face when trying to access data from their vehicles’ original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Available capabilities include insights into fuel and energy usage, reduced downtime, and regulatory compliance.
Alexander Koch, AVP of Vehicle Data Engineering at Geotab, observed that some OEMs prioritise security in ways that restrict access to useful data. He said this challenge has been a focus of the company’s work with Volvo.
“Geotab cares a lot about data access and making sure we can reach these rich data sets. We’re researching all the new models that are coming out, figuring out where the best place is to access the richest data,” he said.
For Volvo, customer feedback plays a key role, and its working relationship with clients like GSK has helped accelerate a number of innovations.
“We were able to implement embedded telematics fairly quickly, and a lot of that is thanks to customers like Henry (Rogers). He’s been a great partner for us, pushing us to deliver on the data points they need. As a result, we’ve gone from not having embedded telematics to now offering some of the most competitive datasets among OEMs,” said Tracy Herman, Senior Manager, Commercial Fleet, Volvo Car USA.
Green light
As enterprises advance their sustainability initiatives, the adoption of electric vehicles across fleets is introducing new challenges in data access.
UPS, for example, found that while electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers provide a wide range of data points, they often aren’t the ones fleet managers actually need.
“We worked with Geotab to create a standardised list for EVs. When you talk to EV manufacturers, something as basic as ‘ignition on’ can already be a big deal. So we developed a list, which I shared with the manufacturer. That way, when the vehicle arrives and I plug in a Geotab device, I know those minimum data points will already be available,” said Aiello.
For Volvo’s plug-in hybrid vehicles, one of the most requested features was access to charging data.
“There’s no way to track whether a driver is charging the vehicle. And if they’re not, then the company is just spending more money on a heavier vehicle, which doesn’t make sense. So we worked on enabling that charging data so fleet managers can monitor it,” Herman said.
Road to transformation
Mike Branch, Geotab’s Vice President for Data and Analytics, said the company is working to reduce the complexity fleet managers face due to data fragmentation in the commercial vehicle space.
“Different makes and models of vehicles capture data in different ways, so you get varying levels of fidelity and a lack of standardisation across the board. Even when standards exist, we don’t always see them applied, which makes adherence challenging. We look at normalising that across the board, and where data isn’t available, we make sure to communicate that clearly to the customer,” he said.
The first step, Branch suggested, is to make the data feel seamless to customers by presenting it in a consistent format.
“We take a number of different steps when the data is ingested to transform it into a layer that makes sense for our customers, especially when you’re dealing with a mixed fleet, which most of our customers have. Not everyone has a homogeneous fleet of Fords or Toyotas, so the data inputs can vary widely. We make sure to normalise the data, and only when that process begins can you start generating meaningful insights. If you try to derive insights from data that lacks a strong foundational layer, you’ll run into data quality issues. You won’t get the insights you’re looking for,” he emphasised.
Geotab also analyses the specific outcomes that customers are targeting to deliver the data they need. According to Branch, the three most common goals for adopting telematics are reducing collisions, minimising downtime, and cutting emissions.
“We work closely with our OEM partners to make sure we clearly understand what assumptions went into their models. As a result, because we’ve reviewed and normalised that data, we can push through an insight, instead of the customer having to worry about whether to set a trigger for a harsh braking event or build a rule around it. AI has already figured that out. We’ll tell you exactly which vehicles in your fleet are at the highest risk of collision,” he said.
To help fleet managers interact more effectively with their data, Geotab recently introduced its generative AI analytics assistant, Geotab Ace.
“You can ask questions like, ‘How productive is my fleet?’ and it will give you an answer,” Branch shared. “Unlike other large language models, the trusted insights feature gives a consistent answer every time,” he asserted.
At the end of the day, fleet managers want access to data that supports their operations, and the ability to interpret and act on it, as Rogers from GSK pointed out.
“When it comes to telematics, especially in the risk space, having the data and doing nothing with it is worse than not having the data at all,” he concluded.
