If you could not attend or livestream Connect 2020, here is what happened on Day 1.

Day 1 recap and keynote summaries

After an exciting Welcome Dinner on the USS Midway, Geotab Connect 2020 officially kicked off! CEO Neil Cawse welcomed all guests to the conference and discussed the importance of a connected ecosystem and how this will impact our future. He stressed the importance of data, saying, “Not collecting data is like not being able to see around the corner.”

Other keynote presenters on Day 1 included:

• Colin Sutherland, Geotab — Welcome to Geotab Connect 2020
• Evan Speer — State of California Telematics Program
• David Munn — Telematics for Federal Government
• Brandon Nixon, Lytx
• Matt Jennings, SAP
• Jean Pilon-Bignell, Geotab — The Digital Transformation of Government

A thriving ecosystem

Geotab builds an active, two-way relationship with customers and partners. In his keynote address, Neil Cawse discussed the importance of offering the best possible advice and products. He says, “We are the experts, customers are looking to us for guidance. Make sure the customers always have a choice. If you truly want to have an open and vibrant ecosystem, that’s the way it has to be.” He highlighted Geotab’s open-platform API, which ensures customer freedom and avoids uncompetitive lock-in. “We understand what we can do to solve their problems,” he says, speaking of customers, “and then we build it into our products.” Given the choice to make a product cheaper, or better, Geotab will always choose to create a better product.

In reference to Geotab’s recent recognition by ABI Research as the World’s #1 Telematics provider, Cawse says that Geotab’s journey has only just begun. He is looking forward to continuing the innovation into 2020 and beyond, touching on developments like smart cities and video telematics.

Fleet electrification is increasing and here to stay

Although the media has hyped autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles are a reality and a fleet trend to watch for in 2020. “Electrification is coming fast and you really need to learn more,” says Cawse.

Organizations can tap into their telematics insights to make the transition easier. Geotab offers a tool that analyzes fleet telematics over a set period and then creates an electrification recommendation based on each vehicle’s driving patterns. For fleets that are going green, the Electric Vehicle Suitability Assessment (EVSA) is a way to help support the success of their EV program.

Geotab adds a new pillar: sustainability

Colin Sutherland, AVP at Geotab, discussed each pillar of innovation and how Geotab has developed. The pillars include Productivity, Safety, Fleet Optimization, Compliance, Expandability, and our newest, Sustainability. Telematics is critical to creating sustainable fleets, whether it is used to optimize charging locations, improve routing, manage idling and more. Learn more about Geotab’s pillars of innovation at Geotab.com.

Sutherland also showcased Geotab’s growth by comparing the first Connect conference six years ago, which consisted of 250 attendees, to a packed conference of over 1,500 attendees in 2020.

In his keynote, Sutherland also touched on ways that people can learn about telematics and using MyGeotab. The Geotab Community is an easy way to find answers to top questions and connect with experts in telematics. Visit the forum to find “curated answers by Geotab staff, ” says Sutherland. If you’re new to the community, go to Getting Started. Other sections to explore include Questions, the Developers area and the Knowledge Base. Visit community.geotab.com today and become a member.

Another way to stay connected is through the Geotab Blog, which has over 600 articles on fleet management to date. The article “What can 6,000 electric vehicles tell us about EV battery health?,” for example, is a fascinating look at EV battery degradation based on research into the real-world battery performance of electric vehicles. Within the article is a link to an interactive EV battery degradation comparison tool, which allows you to look up the average battery degradation for different vehicle makes and model years.

This article by Charlotte Argue, Senior Manager, Fleet Electrification for Geotab, takes an objective look into this issue and shows that there hasn’t been a significant decline for the majority of EVs on the road.

Going beyond traditional telematics

Jean Pilon-Bignell, Vice President Business Development, Government and Smart City gave attendees an overview of how Geotab is partnering with governments and municipalities in his talk, “Digital transformation of government.”
In 2019, three historic contracts were announced.

1. Geotab was awarded the largest single-source telematics contract to date with the U.S. GSA Fleet, a division of GSA (General Services Administration). GSA Fleet operates vehicles all over the world, working with the U.S. military and also state and local governments. It is widely recognized as one of the most complex fleet organizations in the world.
2. The State of California awarded Geotab a single-source Blanket Purchase Agreement for telematics.
3. Geotab is supporting New York City with their NYC Vision Zero program, and goal to become the “world’s safety big city.”. New York City will hopefully serve as a benchmark to help other Vision Zero cities increase efficiency, safety and reduce traffic fatalities.

“We are literally transforming the way public works operates,” noted Pilon-Bignell. Using telematics, governments can improve operations like snow clearing, street sweeping, sanitation and policing. “Our goal is to connect not just the vehicle, but all the controllers on the vehicles.”

There is exciting work happening around 511 portals to allow citizens to see the status of service delivery in their area in real-time. In the future, telematics could help increase the transparency of these public services; for example, citizens could see the location of snow plows, road conditions or first-response vehicles. Geotab is working with cities on similar initiatives, “helping them share live level of service metrics with their constituents.”

In addition, Geotab is working on smart intersections, helping municipalities leverage telematics data to understand dwell time and movements at lights. By streamlining traffic at intersections, organizations can run more efficient traffic signal operations for safety and sustainability benefits such as reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Major announcements

Two million subscribers

Geotab announced it has surpassed 2 million subscribers, securing its position as the world’s largest commercial telematics company.View the press release and our journey at a glance here.