Openreach test Geotab to boost safety and cut downtime of UK vehicle fleet
Network access provider Openreach (BT), which has a huge fleet of 23,000 cars and commercial vans to help their engineers roll-out and support their UK broadband infrastructure, has revealed that they’re testing Geotab‘s connected vehicle fleet telematics technology to improve driver safety, cut downtime and support their sustainability ambitions.
The solution, which is currently in the “early-adopter phase“, essentially tracks each vehicle in a lot more detail. The data reveals the vehicle’s performance (e.g. fuel consumption), how it’s being driven (i.e. the ability to identify dangerous driving) and it could also help to identify potential maintenance issues before they lead to breakdowns (i.e. minimising unplanned downtime).
Driving is said to be one of the highest risk activities undertaken by Openreach’s people, so making it safer is said to be a “key priority“, although not all engineers may approve of being micro-analysed by such technologies. Speaking of which, the driving data will be shared directly with drivers via an app, “empowering them to understand their own driving behaviours, self-correct where needed and continuously improve their driving skills.”
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However, the technology has been designed with employee privacy in mind, which includes controls that limit data collection outside of working hours.
Judy O’Keefe, Openreach’s Director of Fleet Management, said:
“Our engineers rely on their vehicles every day to keep people and businesses connected. We have worked with the CWU and Prospect, our recognised Trade Unions on this trial which will help us better understand how our fleet is performing so we can improve safety, reduce downtime and provide our colleagues with the best possible support.
By giving us earlier visibility of potential vehicle issues and better insight into how our fleet operates, this technology can help create a safer, more efficient and more sustainable fleet for the future.”
Several volunteer engineers are currently helping to test the new technology and, if it proves to be successful, then the plan is to deploy it across their entire fleet; this is currently the expected outcome.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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I wonder how many Openreach Engineers will tell them where to go!
It’s only about macro managing and controlling their engineers . Nothing more than that. Hence why the Union had to be involved.
The vehicles already have trackers installed so no difference, they are getting old now so this is basically an upgrade to a newer system. As an ex manager we were told to utilise the data to encourage people to start on time, finish on time and get an insight into this impacts on performance, compliance for home parking and duty of care. It’s not just the engineering people being monitored, managers are monitored to on their laptops and mobile phone locations. I welcome the equipment as a shareholder as it improves productivity and efficiency.