Telecom Lead Europe: Commercial fleet telematics in government sector is expected to see a rise in total revenue, comprising hardware shipments, and service subscriptions, from a total of $618 million at the end of 2012 to $1.26 billion globally by the end of 2018.

The market is driven by government mandates to lower fuel consumption and gas emissions or to promote the use of alternative fuel vehicles. In the current economic climate, government and public sector agencies are under relentless pressure to reduce costs whilst at the same time maintain service levels.

The U.S. government is promoting the adoption of telematics in federal vehicles by simplifying the purchasing process. Federal agencies can ‘add’ appropriate telematics solutions to vehicles leased from GSA Fleet—the vehicle leasing arm of the federal government—and add the cost of the telematics to their monthly leasing plan.

Key providers with pre-qualified Blanket Purchase Agreements to offer services in this way include NetworkFleet, Trimble, and Drivecam. There are similar purchasing initiatives at state and local levels.

Although there are no plans to mandate telematics adoption at the federal level yet, there are a number of initiatives underway to mandate the use of telematics at state government levels, the report says.

State departments typically have more sophisticated requirements as they operate specialized vehicles, such as snow ploughs and refuse vehicles, where there is a need to demonstrate that certain operations were carried out satisfactorily. As a result, telematics is increasingly effective in improving services levels, productivity, and in particular, disputing insurance claims.

Telematics providers who have developed specialized applications to meet such requirements include Teletrac and Sprint (with partner Geotab) in the United States and Masternaut and Digicore (via its Ctrack brand) in Europe.

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