{"id":4879,"date":"2020-03-31T17:04:08","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T15:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/?p=4879"},"modified":"2020-03-31T17:04:08","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T15:04:08","slug":"boston-improves-accountability-fleet-visibility-with-telematics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/2020\/03\/31\/boston-improves-accountability-fleet-visibility-with-telematics\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Improves Accountability, Fleet Visibility with Telematics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City of Boston is using its telematics software to gain real-time visibility into its electric vehicles and ensure its snowplow contractors are accountable and billing correctly. A case study recently released by telematics provider Samsara provides the details.<\/span><\/p>\n

Increasing Visibility of the EV Fleet<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Boston Public Works has a fleet of more than 400 light- and heavy-duty vehicles, ranging from snowplows to electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in its vehicle sharing program. The city has set a goal for full fleet electrification by 2030.<\/span><\/p>\n

Boston is using Samsara’s new EV features<\/a>, actively leveraging data such as average miles driven and energy use, to identify which vehicles are good candidates to transition to electric. \u201cThis data helps us transition what we call the \u2018low-hanging-fruit vehicles\u2019 that we know will be easy to switch to EVs,\u201d said Matthew Bradley, superintendent of automotive maintenance\u00a0for the city. Additionally, parking consistency data helps identify areas to potentially develop more charging infrastructure.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

One of the most common EV problems solved is range anxiety and vehicles running out of battery before it can reach its destination \u2014 mainly due to drivers not charging them after use. In the first few months after EVs were added, a few drivers did run out of battery, and the vehicles had to be towed back to the city. Now, Bradley and the fleet team can see state of charge in real time and receive alerts when vehicles fall below a certain battery percentage. Additionally, a map overlay allows them to find the nearest city-owned EV charging station to guide low-battery vehicles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bradley can now coach drivers on when to take EVs out on the road and reassure reluctant drivers that there is enough charge to make the trip. This allows the city to save money on travel costs and reduce environmental emissions \u2014 in one case, an employee was able to use an EV to travel to a nearby state for an event rather than taking a flight.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ensuring Plowing Accountability<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Another use case for the telematics system is plowing accountability during winter storms. The city operates 110 snow plows and contracts up to 750 additional plows and drivers after heavy snowfall. In the past, Public Works distributed phones to contractors, but the phones often ran out of battery or lost connectivity, making it difficult to track locations and ensure service quality. Now, the city installs vehicle gateways on its own vehicles and distributes them to contractors instead of the phones. City staff members set up geofences around each of 10 districts to ensure that plow service is being deployed in the right location at the right time, allowing for more accurate, streamlined billing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe plug-and-play functionality makes it very easy. Now we can make sure the plows are where they\u2019re supposed to be and that their devices are powered on,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cThis helps us ensure that they are plowing and not idling in one location.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

by GF Staff<\/a><\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.government-fleet.com<\/a><\/p>\n

FLEET MANAGEMENT AUDIT<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Fleet management is the use of a set of vehicles in order to provide services to a third-party, or to perform a task for our organization, in the most efficient and productive manner with a determined level of service and cost.<\/p>\n

Fleet management activities are shown in the following graph 1:<\/p>\n

\"fleet<\/p>\n

Graph 1: fleet management activities<\/p>\n

The proposal audit analyses and assesses all fleet management activities shown in the graph 1, and its main goals are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Know the overall status of the fleet management activities<\/li>\n
  • Provide the analysis, the assessment, the advice, the suggestions and the actions to take in order to cut costs and increase the efficiency and efficacy of the fleet management\u00a0 activities<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    With the information obtained, we\u2019ll elaborate a report that holds the overall status of the fleet management as well as the suggestions, recommendations and the measures to take in order to cut costs and optimize the fleet management activities.<\/p>\n

    CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK TO DOWNLOAD THE PROPOSED FLEET MANAGEMENT AUDIT:<\/strong><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The City of Boston is using its telematics software to gain real-time visibility into its electric vehicles and ensure its snowplow contractors are accountable and billing correctly. A case study recently released by telematics provider Samsara provides the details. Increasing Visibility of the EV Fleet Boston Public Works has a fleet of more than 400…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[41],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4879"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4881,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4879\/revisions\/4881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}