The Risks of Paying Mileage to your Employees.

Whenever a vehicle is being driven for company purposes, that company is considered legally responsible for the safety and roadworthiness of the vehicle.*

Most organisations aren’t aware that employees who drive their car for work come under the same Duty of Care profile as company owned vehicles. Paying employees Mileage, especially in the Not For Profit sector, is viewed as a low cost option with no administration required.

Our research has shown that most Not For Profit don’t have a Grey Fleet (vehicles owned by employees) policy covering employee vehicles and their use for business purposes. As such they are putting their organisation, employees and clients at RISK due to a lack of management of these vehicles.

Organisations need to provide the following minimum level of management for these vehicles:

Grey Fleet Policy

This Policy needs to encapsulate the below items as a minimum setting a standard under which your Organisational Risk is mitigated.

Licensing

This is always missed as you assume the driver has their licence, but just as for company cars you need to keep a copy on record and ensure they immediately report any suspension or loss of licence.

Vehicle Inspections

The employee needs to have a full inspection done of their vehicle by a qualified manager covering service history, tyres, seatbelts and the like. This must then be followed up periodically to ensure it is kept up.

Vehicle Maintenance

Employees can request that the employee provide copies of Servicing and Repair receipts to ensure the vehicle is maintained properly by a licensed mechanic.

Registration

You can initially check the registration status online, and then ensure the employee also provides proof of renewal each year.

Comprehensive Insurance

This is an often overlooked area. The car needs to have Full Comprehensive Insurance to ensure their own car and that of others including property are covered.  If they only have Third Party Insurance then they may request that the Organisation pay for any damage to their own car during the course of business.

With Mileage costs now close to $1 per kilometre there are alternatives for Not For Profits in owning their own vehicles which can be far more cost effective.  At Sage Fleet we have transitioned many organisations from Grey Fleet to Company Owned vehicles creating large ongoing savings and complete end to end management.

Don’t hesitate to contact us to find out more.

*Gallagher Basset Article: https://blog.gallagherbassett.com.au/blog/grey-fleet-safety

5 Insights into the Australian Telematics Marketplace

As Australian businesses transition their Telematics from 3G to 4G I thought it would be a good opportunity to provide some guidance on what I have found over the past two years with regards to the industry, suppliers and what this means for you the end user.

Change of ownership

There has been a lot of movement in Telematics business ownership both in Australia and New Zealand.  Large players are entering the market, purchasing smaller players with the end goal of consolidating their businesses to increase their “units in the field”. So the business you think you know, has in fact changed hands.

Business Restructuring

Some suppliers have to now purchase hardware from another source essentially reducing their ability to simply upgrade a clients fleet due to incompatibility issues.  Understanding if your supplier can continue to provide you with the same solution via a 4G network is critical.

Changes in Service Delivery

The other aspect is that for some smaller players they have been forced to reduce their service delivery especially after installation with clients complaining about Help Desks that require you to re-apply for a new “ticket” so that they can meet their internal KPI of a 30 day turn around on client issues.

Reduction in product development

One of the key selling points in a business takeover is the injection of new funds into the business allowing them to grow and improve products.  Unfortunately for much of the Telematics industry the focus is on “Units in the Field” a key measurement for the new owner, much like the Mobile Phone telecommunication's industry.

As such, the capital injection isn’t forth coming and instead they are forced to focus on increasing their client base to appease the new shareholders.

New Solutions to old Issues

As the technology employed for Telematics matures there are new developments that can create great value for your business. These include Keyless Entry solutions matched with Pool Car Software. EV Evaluation Algorithms that provide guidance on which vehicles in your fleet would be suitable for replacement with an Electric Vehicle. Driver Fatigue and Distraction solutions integrated with Telematics to dramatically improve driver safety.

As always, don’t hesitate to contact us if would like assistance in sourcing a suitable Telematics Provider for your Fleet.

Telematics Hardware running on 3G? Time is running out.

Australia’s 3G network is closing down over the coming 12 months meaning that any equipment using this technology will need to be replaced, or, upgraded to 4G or 5G. 

As the AMTA (Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association) stated in 2003:

“The 3G network can handle more calls and higher incoming and outgoing data communication. 3G also allows users to access mobile internet. With the introduction of smartphones that could access 3G gave users the possibility of having a mobile computer. This allowed such advances as video calls, gave users access to their emails and other digital websites and access to mapping and GPS applications.”

Fast forward 20 years and 3G has been shelved as the newer generation systems take over.

In June of 2024 Telstra will shut down their system. Telstra is the most commonly used platform by Telematics suppliers in Australia due to its larger coverage.

OPTUS has stated that they will be shuttering their 3G network in September of 2024 and Vodafone on the 15th of December 2023.

Some of the Telematics providers in Australia literally have tens of thousands of units operating on this old technology within their clients businesses, and aren’t necessarily pro-actively discussing this issue.

If you have a Telematics system installed that uses 3G for data connection then now is a great time to review your requirements and go to market to see what is now available in what is a rapidly evolving marketplace.

New services include Keyless Entry Systems, Data Driven Insurance Premiums, Pool Car Management / booking systems and Electric Vehicle Suitability Assessments, to name a few.  

Sage Fleet are currently working with a range of clients across these technologies to help them source and select the most suitable system for their requirements.

Contact Sage Fleet if you would like help or advice in upgrading your Telematics Solution.

5 Reasons why Telematics often fails to deliver

Telematics can provide a raft of valuable information for your business or organisation. However, more often than not for those businesses outside of the Logistics and Mining industries, Telematics fails to deliver the results they were seeking.

So how do so many get this so wrong, let’s explore five key reasons that will provide some clarity to assist you in ensuring your Telematics solution delivers the results you want.

Not clearly defining the issue or improvement

What are you trying to solve? Driver safety, FBT, Fuel Usage, Driver location / allocation. You need to define exactly what it is you are trying to achieve. Telematics may not be the answer, or, it may only be a component of the solution that also requires Policy Changes and driver education.

Not Enough Research

All Telematics System suppliers can deliver location, driver behaviour, fuel profiling, utilisation and FBT reporting, however, you may need a tailored solution that requires modifications or a hybrid solution. Who else has tried to solve this issue? Is there anyone in your network that is using Telematics that can share their journey and what has worked for them. If you can’t find a system that delivers what you need then look at other alternatives.

Poor Implementation

Simply installing the system into your fleet and telling drivers that you are now using telematics is a recipe for failure. You need to engage with drivers early in the process to get their buy in and bring them along for the journey. Getting buy in early will reduce any pushback from drivers around privacy and how and what data the system will be capturing.

Ongoing Management

All too often Telematics is installed into a fleet only to be forgotten about after a short while. 

Unless you have a dedicated person within your Safety or Fleet department team monitoring and making changes based on what the system is telling you, then you will never achieve your original goal. Just like CRM systems, if they are not used / monitored and administered correctly they become a very costly mistake that only gets worse as time goes on.

System providers not delivering what you wanted

Another issue can be the Telematics provider not delivering what you asked for. If you ask if they can provide a certain feature or report then you need to get a live example of this, rather than a promise that they can deliver this in the future.

Contact Sage Fleet if you would like independent advice on Telematics systems and the problems they can solve.