Telematics is key in Brazil, but not in every fleet 
Mallony Media 
During the latest meeting for Fleet and Mobility Managers Club (FMMC) Brazil, industry experts discussed the dynamics of telematics and other related technologies and found that there are barriers to deploying this technology in Latin America's largest vehicle market.  
While the meeting continued the focus of the FMMC North America discussion in August (improving safety, sustainability and overall efficiency in fleet and mobility operations), we found out that there are some headwinds to implementing this technology in Brazil.  
Among them are recognizing local labor laws which includes the country's data protection law LGPD and the presence of numerous worker unions throughout the country which seek to uphold these mandates.      
According to our conversation, the usage of telematics is more common for tool vehicles which have a direct impact on the company's core business and less common for benefit vehicles being driven by company executives.      
Moreover, while industries such as energy, utilities, and tech firms commonly use telematics, there are some industries such as pharmaceuticals which shy away from this technology. Approximately 15% of FMMC representatives are from the pharmaceuticals industry.    
FMMC members, industries represented 
  • Food & Drink 
  • Pharmaceuticals  
  • Hospitals & Health 
  • Care Business Consulting 
  • Metals & Minerals 
  • Staffing & Recruiting  
  • Renewable Energy 
  • Agricultural 
  • Chemical Products  
  • Automation Machinery Manufacturing 
"Our industry is concerned with taking on the legal risk of using telematics in our fleet operations. However, I see the use of other technologies such as ADAS options to optimize safety as utmost importance to avoiding accidents," an FMMC member and Latin America Fleet Manager from the pharmaceuticals industry said.   

“We have had problems such as fuel fraud and this could be better controlled by using telematics. However, this entails collecting driver data and we don’t really want to deal with the risk of doing this, especially for executives. This is an issue from a human resources standpoint.” added another FMMC member and Latin America Procurement Head from the manufacturing industry.  

On the other hand, telematics is still used by many fleet operators, especially those with many tool vehicles, or to say those directly related to the operations of the company.  

“With real-time tracking of our vehicles, the use of telematics is a fundamental part of our fleet operations. For one, it advises us of bad driver behavior such us speeding, something that can impact sustainability as well as safety.”said an FMMC member and Brazil Fleet Manager from the energy industry.  

“While we directly install telematics in the vehicles we own, our leased vehicles already come with telematics offerings which we discuss with our vehicle suppliers beforehand.”  

Cost and Companies 

In Brazil, investing in telematics usually cost between R$75-R$150 depending on the options you are looking for.  If you have a larger fleet (e.g. more than 300 vehicles), you could probably negotiate a price below R$75 for a more basic telematics solution.  

Telematics companies in Brazil include: Geotab, Golfleet, ITER Telemetria, IturanBrasil, M2M Telemetria, MiX Telematics, Pointer do Brasil, Power Fleet, TLM Telemetria, Track7 Telemetria, Trimble, Webfleet Solutions, and more. 

Fleet Mobility Today (FMT) has put together three FMMC groups, being Brazil, Latin America, and North America. The next meeting will be for the Latin America group, taking place in October. See you soon!