It’s no wonder why our Suppliers entrust their customers into our care.
We’ve seen it all in our field. We’ve seen the Cowboys, the Lazys, the I-Know-Betters. We’ve seen the DIYs and we’ve seen the It-Wasn’t-Mes. And after more than 15 years in the industry, it still absolutely surprises us to know that with so much responsibility being entrusted to us as engineers, by our customers, there are still some in the industry that feel it is good enough to do second-rate work.
That’s why Motorsparks prides itself on delivering quality services. We stand by our work – and if there were ever a reason to doubt the calibre of our work, we are passionate about resolving, fixing and correcting anything that is not done to our customers’ expectations.
Whether we’re working on an entry-level runaround, or whether we’re working on a Heavy Hauler – our commitment to excellence remains the same, which is why we are proud of the relationships that we have developed with many of our customers and suppliers – who entrust their own customers into our care, on their behalf.
It speaks for itself.
Motorsparks launches new look and feel
As many small business owners will appreciate, starting your own business is an incredibly exciting, but hellishly scary, thing to do. Motorsparks is proud to say that after 4 years of trading, we’re still going strong. And as a result, we thought we’d celebrate with a new look and feel.
Motorsparks Ltd was incorporated in 2012 after the director, Denny Roberts, decided to take his skills within the telematics and auto-electrical industry and put them to good use within his own business. With many years of experience under his belt, Denny has been consistently building Motorsparks into a business that serves its regular and new customer base with quality service, honest product offering and consistent value for money.
So it was only time that we spruced up the old logo and hire a designer to smooth some of the rough edges, and set us up for the next phase of business.
Huge thank you to Dan Warburton from World Wide Warb for your patience, and absolutely professionalism while we mulled over so many options and changed our minds!
He was proudly recommended by the Lancashire Hot Pots (that nutty lot!) and we are so glad we listened to them.
Worries keeping Fleet Managers up at night
There’s no better feeling than feeling in control. Right? Right.
So, as you sit there, right now, do you know where each of your vehicles are? And do you know how they’re being driven?
If you can answer yes to these questions, with 100% confidence, then you more than likely have a Fleet Management system installed in your fleet. If you hesitated…. then we need to talk.
So what is it that keeps you awake at night?
Could it be your spiralling fuel bills?
Could it be your driver retention?
Could it be looking after the safety of those operating your fleet?
Or could it simply be that once your vehicle leaves your premises, you have no idea as to where they are, and what they’re up to, until they return back to your site again at the end of the day.
Fleet Owners and Managers all over the world share your concerns – which is why they’re actively taking action to do something about it. And the solution is easy. They’re installing system into their vehicles that gives them complete visibility as to what their vehicles and drivers are doing, complete manageability of their fuel and maintenance costs and complete peace of mind that their most valuable asset, their fleet, is being looked after as it should be.
Motorsparks works with a number of solution providers whose passion it is to ensure you have the control you need. So whether you’re looking for an in-vehicle camera system or a fleet management system, we can help you take back control today.
Give us a call.
Only 1 in 10 companies take total cost of ownership into account when buying new vehicles.
Shocked?
We were.
According to a study published by Fleet News, only one in 10 companies (11%) take total cost of ownership (TCO) into account when procuring vehicles, according to latest research. Purchase price or lease cost ranked as the biggest consideration, selected by 64% of companies, with vehicle reliability a priority for just a third (33%), the study by fleet management specialist Fleet Operations revealed.
After so many years of managing fleets, with so many million gallons of fuel used, new tyres and engine replacements, one would not be foolish to assume that fleet operators realised the priority of managing and controlling their fleet costs. However – with statistics published above – it is scary to see that fleet owners are still grossly underestimating the power they hold in being able to cut their fleet costs dramatically.
And if you are one of those fleet owners, then this blog is specifically for you.
Your fleet may be 1 vehicle – it may be 2000. Your vehicle may travel from house to house in Dorset, or it may travel around the world. Circumstance doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you hold the key to managing and controlling how much you pay out.
That is where a Fleet Management system comes into the discussion.
Motorsparks is an authorised reseller of Scorpion Automotive’s Fleet Management solution – a simple plug & play solution that gives you the access you need to be able to manage your fleet effectively.
Here’s why this is the solution for you:
- Live map with vehicle position updates in near real-time (at least once a minute)
- Reports with vehicle position data in real-time (every ten seconds)
- Highly customisable dashboard with KPI graphs
- Flexible vehicle groups, assign vehicles to multiple groups
- Highly customisable, powerful and intuitive reporting and report scheduling
- View reports online or export to HTML, PDF or Excel for further processing
- Add a flag to any journey or event in a generated report for later perusal
- Receive scheduled reports by email
- Highly customisable, powerful and intuitive alert system
- Highly customisable, and extensive geofence system, including either circular or polygon (any shape) geofences
- Receive alerts by email, text message or both – 24/7
- Alerts displayed in real-time on live map with audio notification
- Unique driver login allowing drivers to manage their own mileage
- Unique driver comparison allowing drivers to compare KPI statistics against other drivers promoting driver efficiency and safety
- Powerful permission controlled user access
- Comprehensive user activity log
- No more tutorial fees – simple and easy to understand online context sensitive help
Want to know more?
Talk to us about a Fleet solution today.
Car theft thriving in the Countryside – here’s why you need to pay attention
According to findings posted by The Car People, it would appear that car theft is on the decline. Which is good news, right? Sure. But what if you live in an affluent area? And what if you lived in the Countryside? Then things aren’t as rosy.
According to their research, it appeared that the highest areas of car theft included Dorset, Gloucester, Cheshire, Avon & Somerset, Cumbria & Suffolk. According to our friends at Honest John, the highest cases of car thefts by manufacturer include LDV, Land Rover, Mercedes Benz, Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Proton, Citroen, Fiat, Peugeot, Ford and Audi.
Here’s what the Guardian recently published, “The surge in thefts of Land Rover Defenders prompted the insurer NFU Mutual, which focuses on farmers, to urge owners in April to be more security savvy. Claims from its customers following thefts of Defenders rose to £1.8m in 2015, an increase of 8% over 2014. A spokesperson for the insurer said: “Now that Defenders are out of production they are rapidly gaining classic status and rising in value. This is making them more attractive to thieves – either to sell as complete vehicles or to break up to sell as parts.”
Does that fill you with peace and joy?
Nope – we didn’t think so.
There is – however – something you can do to protect yourself against vehicle theft – and stand yourself in good stead to get your vehicle back. You install a Stolen Vehicle Recovery system. A Stolen Vehicle Recovery system (or “SVR” as it’s known) is a system whereby a black box is installed into your vehicle with a GPS receiver and a series of sensors. This black box is connected to your vehicle and can be set up to send all kinds of alarms and warnings – should your vehicle move without your permission.
Motorsparks is the authorised reseller of Scorpion Track – a Thatcham-accredited Stolen Vehicle Solution. ScorpionTrack actively protects your vehicle against illegal movement using GPS technology along with movement detection sensors hidden within the vehicle. Upon Illegal movement detection ScorpionTrack will discretely notify their international control centre of a ignition state, battery condition and location details to the Police control room in the event of a theft.
It’s that simple.
Park yourself around this great solution from Scorpion Automotive & Motorsparks.
Nowadays – most new vehicles arrive equipped with a parking assist solution – whether it’s in the form of a camera that shows you where you’re going, or parking sensors that notify you through sound, how far you are to an object, or both.
But let’s face it. Not all of us have the means to be able to buy a new car just to have the parking assistance solution.
That’s where a retrospective solution comes in. You can install parking sensors on your vehicle that gives you in-car feedback and helps you to park in any tight spot! It warns you when you’re too close to an object, and it can even show you just how far away you on on a parking display.
Motorsparks is an authorised reseller of the Scorpion Automotive parking sensor solution – and here are some of the benefits that will help you – whether you’re an owner of 1 vehicle, or a fleet owner of many:
- Helping Drivers avoid costly damage and vehicle downtime
- Protecting your vehicle and your insurance premiums
- Assisting the driver in difficult parking situations
- Reducing whole-life running costs
- Helping commercial vehicle operators to meet their Duty of Care Obligations
- Quick & easy installation through an accredited dealer like Motorsparks, provides you with a cost effective solution.
We’d love to talk to you about a great parking solution today!
Motorsparks becomes authorised dealer for Scorpion Automotive
Motorsparks is thrilled to announce their appointment as authorised dealer for Scorpion Automotive fleet and stolen vehicle recovery telematics products.
Having worked within the Telematics business for many years – we understand the varying needs our customers have to keep an eye on their vehicles, their maintenance bills, their drivers – and to have complete control of their own customers needs and assets. Which is why we couldn’t be happier to work with a partner like Scorpion Automotive – a proudly British brand – who are changing the lives of fleet customers throughout the UK.
Scorpion Automotive is the UK’s leading supplier and manufacturer of vehicle security alarm systems and tracking systems for motorcycles, passenger cars and both light and heavy commercial vehicles. Our in-house team design hardware and software to TS16949 standards, allowing rapid concept to prototype development – having been in business since 1973.
We look forward to a long and prosperous relationship with Scorpion Automotive – and most importantly – providing solutions to our customers that work for their benefit.
The changing role of the fleet manager
Original Article: Tom Tom Telematics
The traditional role of the fleet manager has changed dramatically over recent years. Increasing cost pressures, combined with legislative and technological developments have called for new skill sets, knowledge and expertise.
While fleet size, nature of operation, geographical spread and corporate objectives can all impact the modern day fleet manager’s responsibilities, in most cases the role has become more demanding, strategic and integral to wider company performance.
Furthermore, access to relevant fleet data to support these new responsibilities has become more important than ever before.
With input from fleet managers and industry consultants, we take a look at five key areas where the role of the fleet managers has changed – and is continuing to evolve.
1. Technological advancements: a revolution for fleet management
An unprecedented rate of technological development over the past couple of decades has revolutionised the ways businesses operate, monitor and control their company vehicles.
Telematics, for example, delivers a wealth of fleet data, enabling managers and drivers to optimise efficiency and performance. Precise vehicle locations can be monitored, jobs scheduled and drivers dispatched dynamically, journey routes optimise, accurate business mileage records recorded. Advanced driver behaviour and vehicle diagnostics systems enable early identification of faults and driving styles to be analysed, benchmarked and continuously improved.
Camera systems improve safety and security, routing and scheduling systems improve logistics, tablet and smartphone apps improve productivity while disparate field and back office hardware and software can now be integrated on a single platform for improved workflow.
Today’s fleet managers must understand and utilise the tools at their disposal, have the flexibility to adapt to new technology and use the fleet data it generates to improve companywide performance.
2. Money matters: financial obligations on the rise
Fleet costs are often one of the biggest expense for businesses after payroll. Consequently, the boundaries between fleet management and finance are merging with fleet data analysis – from purchasing models and cost-benefit analysis to risk profiling and whole life costs – a key influencing factor on the business bottom line.
Fleet managers’ competencies must reflect this and extend beyond simply the cost and running of the vehicle – or the requisite support must be available from elsewhere in the business.
Chris Stone, head of finance with gas distribution company SGN, has become heavily involved in fleet policy and says finance departments have an increasing role to play. Stone has driven the rollout of telematics across the company and is expecting to save in the region of £1million by implementing a driver performance improvement programme.
“At SGN, our finance team carries out commercial business decisions, complex tax calculations, financial negotiations, procurement and data analysis on a daily basis. It makes sense for us to include fleet data in our analysis to help make decisions around types of vehicle procured, fuel card tenders, etc.
“With our finance team working hand-in-hand with our experienced fleet team, we can better utilise the unique skill sets of each team to ensure we provide an even more efficient fleet management service to our business.”
3. A question of risk: increasing legal responsibilities
According to the Health and Safety Executive, employers have the same duty of care obligations for their mobile workers as for all their office site staff.
Over the years the amount of legislation fleets face has grown. Legislation governing fleet risk operations today ranges from the Health and Safety at Work Act to the more recent Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act. Fleet managers have an increasing duty to ensure their organisations stay on the right side of the law.
Simply ensuring drivers hold valid licences and that their company vehicles have valid MOT certificates may not be enough to ensure their safety. According to the Department for Transport’s ‘Driving for Better Business’, to ensure risks are effectively managed organisations must address their health and safety “policy, responsibility, organisation, systems and monitoring”.
From introducing risk management policies to ensuring vehicle checks are conducted; from monitoring driver hours to managing driver behaviour – the modern day fleet manager, often in conjunction with HR departments, may face numerous risk management responsibilities. See our guide to the top 10 risk management KPIs every fleet manager should be aware of.
4. The emerging eco-warrior
Vehicle horsepower was once front of mind for many fleet managers – but times have changed.
Sustainability has become an important topic on the business agenda with companies keen to become more responsible and more efficient, while customers increasingly expect a responsible approach from the organisations they do business with.
The business case for green fleet management has become a strong one and fleet managers have had to factor this into their decision-making – from procuring low emission vehicles with better fuel consumption and lower company car tax for drivers to innovative fuel saving technology, such as OptiDrive 360 that can also help reduce road risk and vehicle maintenance costs.
The importance of green fleet management has been recognised far and wide with organisations from BMW Group, Daimler and CTAG to the University of Leeds, TomTom Telematics and Centro Ricerche Fiat recently partnering in the EU-funded ecoDriver project, to reduce CO2 emissions and fuel consumption in road transport.
5. Business Mobility: the merging of fleet and travel management
Mobility is the new buzz word finding its way into business parlance for managers who have responsibility for not only a company vehicle fleet, but also for other means of employee travel whether bus, train or plane.
A new breed of fleet manager is emerging who has to consider the total of cost of employee journeys, taking account of factors such as accommodation, parking and taxi fares.
With so many synergies between not only fleet and travel, an amalgamation of roles under the umbrella of mobility is inevitable in many quarters, according to Julie Summerell, CEO at TR Fleet Group.
“Fleet managers must look to up-skill to avoid their jobs being subsumed under other business functions such as travel or HR,” she explains. “This emerging mobility trend should be regarded as an opportunity for the fleet manager, rather than a threat.”
Vehicle Telematics: Making smart use of every drop of fuel
With the global increase in the price of fuel businesses are forced to look at fuel consumption of their fleet vehicles. Therefore the demand of fuel management systems, providing fuel consumption monitoring, driver behavior analysis and fuel cards integration is on increase. Fortunately, where there’s demand, there’s supply– today the market o?ers an array of solutions for fuel management. But only few of them provide complex fuel and driver behavior analysis as well as are flexible enough to be integrated with fuel cards and ERP systems. Wialon fleet management platform is one amongst this category.
You’ll be surprised to discover where your fuel goes
Wialon fuel control module allows for both fuel level monitoring in real time and fuel consumption analysis based on reports, where the information is presented in tables and charts. All the data necessary for fuel consumption control is acquired either from various types of after- market fuel sensors supported in the system or CAN-bus. Be it fuel theft or unreasonable fuel burn, prompt reaction of management team allows saving up to 15-30% of fuel costs and consequently eliminates the very idea of fuel theft among drivers. According to statistics, system payback period amounts to 3-4 months.
Double check to assure driver compliance with reliable fuel thefts and fillings detection. Apart from data in reports, detailed landmarks history with additional information in event tooltips is also available on the map, including the volume, date and time of fuel thefts.
Moreover, fuel report table may contain information on fuel fillings and possible fuel thefts with precise date, time, initial and final fuel levels and fillings/ thefts volume. The statistics on each unit and the whole fleet is available to provide you with the general picture of fleet performance.
E?ective notification system via SMS, emails and pop-up windows allows for immediate reaction to the emerging issues, no matter if you are in or o? o?ce – just use your smartphone with Wialon native mobile app available for Android and iOS.
Driver behavior impacts fuel consumption more than you think
Driver behavior, studies show, impacts both fuel economy and vehicle repair and maintenance to a tremendous degree. In our experience, different driving behavior a?ecting fuel consumption for 30% between the worse and the best. Aggressive driving further results in greater wear and tear on a vehicle.
Fleet operators are now finding that intelligently implemented driver policies aimed at reducing poor driving behavior can increase road safety and bring substantial savings, which benefit the bottom line. That’s why our company focused on developing an intelligent tool “Eco Driving” for driving quality assessment as an add-on to Wialon fleet management system. The tool is intended to help to improve fleet safety, save on fleet maintenance, reduce fuel costs and enhance cargo safety.
“Eco Driving” module helps control aggressive acceleration, speeding, sharp turns and braking, which can be crucial for cargo safety. It also checks for reckless driving–to detect speeding before abrupt braking takes place (for instance, harsh accelerations and decelerations at traffic lights stops). Thus with the help of Wialon-based
“Eco Driving” module a fleet owner gets a comprehensive driver behavior analytics for each trip or for any time period or distance travelled and can detect how drivers treat the entrusted vehicle and whether they try to save corporate fuel by reasonable driving manners.
Fuel cards for absolute fuel control
Wialon fleet management system is integrated with a range of fuel cards services providing customers with an opportunity to control where every fuel rupee was spent by verifying each transaction for the conformity of the fuel card and vehicle, matching the location of the vehicle and the gas station and conformity of purchased and filled fuel volumes.
For those seeking for an e?ective fuel management solution it can be the matter of saving fuel costs, environment protection or driver compliance control. Business world of today urges companies to look for universal solutions with all-in-one functionality and guaranteed results. All this presupposes e?ective analytics based on reliable data, multiple hardware options, quick response system, insight into driver behavior, vehicle technical condition and other parameters implicitly affecting fuel consumption.
Global insurance telematics market expected to grow to US$2.21 billion in 2020 from US$857.2 million in 2015
The global insurance telematics market size is expected to grow from US$857.2 million in 2015 to US$2.21 billion in 2020, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.9%, according to a report by ReportLinker, a market research technology company based in Lyon, France.
iStock_000045744940_SmallConsumers’ enthusiasm for in-car connectivity and growth of smartphone penetration in the insurance and automobile sector are among the factors driving the insurance telematics market, ReportLinker said in a press release on Monday. “The other factor driving the growth of the insurance telematics market is the increase in regulatory compliances and regulations,” the release added. “Furthermore, the market is expected to be driven by opportunities such as the growth in IoT [Internet of Things] and increased demand for telematics solutions in [the] insurance and automotive sector.”
In terms of regions, the insurance telematics market is segmented into five major regional segments, namely, North America, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Europe, Latin America and Middle East and Africa (MEA). “Out of the five major regions, APAC is likely to lead the market in terms of market growth, followed by Latin America,” the release said, “whereas North America will continue to have the largest market share during the forecast period.”
However, the increased need to introduce innovative insurance plans such as usage-based insurance, and induce control and visibility mechanisms has led to a wider demand among insurance and automotive enterprises for insurance telematics applications in the APAC region, ReportLinker said.
Another finding was that insurance telematics cloud deployment is expected to grow with the highest rate from 2015 to 2020. Still, on-premises deployment is expected to contribute the largest market share during the forecast period. Owing to the emergence of digital channels and evolution of technological advancement in cloud and mobile business operations, data infringement issues and operational risks, large enterprises are investing heavily in these solutions to simplify their insurance process and sustain competitive advantage, the release said.
The distribution of primary interviews for the report was as follows: by designation – C-Level: 60%; director level: 25%; and others, including sales, marketing and product managers: 15%. By region, North America constituted 10%, Europe 20%, APAC 40% and others 30%.
