Digicel Jamaica to market vehicle-tracking product
Published:Wednesday | March 19, 2014 | 12:00 AM
Richard Browne, Business Reporter
Digicel Jamaica's business division has introduced a new vehicle management solution called f6, building on a market segment in which it already operates under partnership with a security company.
The product was first launched in Papua New Guinea (PNG) last year, according to Ative Ennis, head of enterprise solutions at Digicel Jamaica.
The f6 goes beyond most fleet-management products to areas like evaluating driver behaviour, fuel consumption, and crash reporting, said Ennis.
Digicel is already in the vehicle-tracking market in partnership with KingAlarm, but that product is more consumer-driven than the f6, Ennis adds.
Other companies in the vehicle-tracking business include security firms such as Guardsman and Hawkeye, as well as PBS Tracking and Safe and Secure Tracking and Technologies.
The new product offering is not expected to affect the relationship with KingAlarm, according to Ennis, who says the security company "is a major strategic partner and we will continue in that vein".
The f6 allows business owners to track and manage their fleets, with the ability to closely monitor their drivers' performance and capture a wide range of vehicle usage patterns. That information is then fed back in real time to a centralised base.
The office base, for example, can be alerted every time a particular vehicle exceeds a preset speed, swerves or goes off-route. The range of services that the f6 can deliver includes detection of any form of risky driving, automatic alerts on any collisions or preset limits, as well as detailed analysis of any accidents. It can also do detailed analysis of collisions, which would be useful for insurance companies, Digicel said.
The f6 also has a driver identification component, allowing businesses to hold individual drivers accountable for whichever vehicle they operate.
"By monitoring drivers behaviour, tracking vehicles in real time and reproducing collision events, f6 enables businesses to improve driver safety and fuel consumption, reduce costs related to unjustified claims and maximise vehicle residual value," said Digicel in a release.
Like Digicel, f6 is an Irish-owned company that is based in Dublin. But the relationship between the two companies doesn't go beyond the current partnership.
"F6 is a vendor partner only," Ennis said.