It happened, more quickly than anticipated. Some major heavy-equipment manufacturers have agreed to pursue an initiative to make key telematics data available directly to their customers, the end-users.
Equipment Management Professionals sponsored a technology summit with key associate members to discuss the issue of a common communications protocol, or lack thereof. The summit resulted in a landmark agreement to figure out a way to standardize and deliver key nonproprietary data.
The next step, according to AEMP executive director Stan Orr, is to bring other manufacturers into the process and try to develop a standard file format. “We want to bring the OEMs who were not at that initial meeting up to speed,” Orr says. “We want to build some general consensus on what the next steps might be.”
AEMP is collaborating with the Association of Equipment Manufacturers in this effort. Al Cervero, AEM senior vice president, attended the summit to hear what his members had to say about the situation and said AEM is willing to support members. “If our members want to move forward, we will help our members,” he says.
Orr expressed gratitude for AEM’s cooperative involvement. He says manufacturers at the summit showed a desire to “do what’s best for the end user” by enabling them to better use available telematics data. “Telematics is the future of the industry,” he says. “We need to do what we can to help our members understand that and to encourage them to start using this data.”
Although immediate beneficiaries will be large heterogeneous fleets with multiple telematics systems, all equipment managers will gain with a standard file format. Data will be more readily and easily available for use in management software.
AEMP is to be commended for tackling this issue. It’s not an association issue, though. This is an industry issue. All equipment managers should take advantage of the momentum coming out of the summit, along with the cooperative environment developed between end user and manufacturer, to encourage further progress.
Contact your distributor and OEM sources to stay abreast of developments. Let them know how your fleet would benefit from the development of a standard file format. It’s all about effective and efficient fleet management. “What we’re talking about is providing an easier method for the end-users to get the data that is rightfully theirs,” Cervero says.
