Caltex develops own telematics technology

Caltex Australia has unveiled Caltex Telematics, an innovative telematics technology that gives businesses real-time information on driver and vehicle performance, as well as the ability to predict future mechanical faults.

The Australian company conducted an extensive pilot to test the world-class technology on its own fleet with the impressive results, prompting the decision to make the solution available to other industry members. Caltex Executive General Manager Commercial Bruce Rosengarten says that, as the operator of a sophisticated supply chain, the company is uniquely placed to understand the needs of transport and logistics customers.

“With fuel and physical assets the two biggest costs for businesses, we’re excited to offer a tried and tested telematics system to help our customers achieve significant performance and safety enhancements.

“While other systems focus on GPS ‘track and trace’, Caltex Telematics tells the full story of how vehicles are being used,” he said.

The program focuses on how vehicles are driven in terms of general behaviours, like acceleration and cornering, as well as to mechanical behaviours — how drivers physically engage with the vehicle — including changing gears, clutch use and braking.

“The additional data collected by Caltex Telematics is gathered through accurate and real-time CANbus information from the vehicle’s engine management system.

“Through sophisticated algorithms and analysis it can be used to predict future faults and maintenance issues, saving companies big dollars before something major happens.

“Safety is at the heart of everything we do at Caltex. It was a no-brainer for us to install a system that helps keep our drivers and other road users safer, as well as providing us with insights to run our fleets more efficiently,” he said.