What is vehicle telematics, and where is it used?

There are two types of emission (greenhouse) gases that contribute to global warming: CO2 (carbon dioxide) and CH4 (methane). Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas with 21 times more impact on climate change than CO2. For the planet, it means that even if we stopped using gas today, methane would still be trapping heat in our atmosphere for decades to come.

It’s not surprising then that automakers are trying to reduce their fleet emissions of this greenhouse gas…but how?

How telematics can help to reduce CO2 emissions

Well, as car owners ourselves we know that by driving less aggressively and reducing our speed we can reduce the number of times we visit the gas station. But what about emissions?

It turns out that there’s a direct correlation between CO2 emissions and vehicle speed. By simply slowing down to 50km/h (31mph) instead of 90km/h (55mph) we can reduce our CO2 emissions by up to 23%!

So how is this useful in real life? By using a telematics device that includes speed alerts, drivers can be encouraged to travel at a more sustainable speed, which will reduce emissions and increase fuel economy.

What telematics means

Telematics is a combination of technologies that allow vehicles to communicate with the outside world. A telematics device gathers information about your driving habits and sends it back to your car company who might offer you discounts on new cars or insurance policies. Also, telematics technology can help you to save on fuel and reduce emissions.

What telematics device is

There are two types of devices: OBD (On-Board Diagnostics) and dedicated trackers. As a rule, all cars made after 1996 have to include an OBD, but it doesn’t send any information about your vehicle to the outside world. This makes it a less useful device than dedicated trackers (for example, black box devices) which can provide a much richer mix of data.

Telematics for fleet management

One of the first and most popular uses for telematics is fleet management. Many companies use telematics devices to monitor their fleets of vehicles. The information gathered by these devices can be used to better manage fuel economy, improve routing efficiency, cut down on paperwork and much more.

Conclusion

As we’ve seen, telematics is just for saving money. It can reduce your fuel consumption and co2 emissions. Thаt increase your mileage. And it does more! You’ll pay less on insurance, repair, and on the whole, you save a lot of time. By using a telematics device you can reduce emissions and improve fuel economy.

And that’s good for the planet.