$1.26 billion revenue from commercial fleet telematics in government sector by 2018

ENGLAND: ABI Research forecasts that the total revenue, comprising hardware shipments, and service subscriptions, for commercial fleet telematics in the government sector will increase from a total of $618 million at the end of 2012 to $1.26 billion globally by the end of 2018.

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, and are looking at ways of improving the utilization of their vehicle fleets and ensuring that these fleets comply with new regulatory and environmental legislation.

“The main market drivers behind the adoption of telematics in government fleets are government mandates designed, for example, to lower fuel consumption and gas emissions or to promote the use of alternative fuel vehicles,” comments Gareth Owen, principal analyst at ABI Research.

The US 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.

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.