Tata Motors will commercially launch telematics shortly.

Tata Motors is expected to launch telematics in a couple of months. The Prima range is fitted with a data logger or a telematics unit, which is more than locating a truck. Because once an electronic engine is fitted in a vehicle in the Prima range, then apart from monitoring where the truck is, the operator and his operation team will be able to monitor things like what speed the driver is driving at, which gear he is driving in, actually how much fuel has gone into the engine etc. If the driver says that he has consumed 200 litre, the engine data tells you what is the exact usage. What a customer finally does with that data is his call.
?Apart from Prima, we are in the pilot stage as far as the existing phase is conc?erned. We are going to do a commercial launch in the next couple of months,? says Vinod K Sahay, Head ? Sales & Marketing, Medium and Heavy Trucks, Tata Motors. ?What we have also done is to facilitate his operations further. We have a key account portal. We have made a dedicated website for all our key accounts. We have given a user name and password for their entire operation team. Using that portal, he can raise a complaint if he is not happy with something. He can monitor his job card online from anywhere in the country. So if a customer from Bengaluru has stock on its way to Delhi and it has gone to a workshop, his operation team in Bengaluru can see what is happening in the truck. He can do a spare part search himself,? he adds.

He adds, ?We are providing our customer the opportunity to do a search and get the spares he needs from the nearest location. So we are giving the control of his business to him. We are going to increasingly put things like telematics and fleet management software into that portal. Along with that we have launched a loyalty programme which is dedicated for key accounts, the Tata Imperial loyalty programme which is a multi-layered programme. It has silver member, gold member and platinum member levels.?

The target customers for telematics are basically fleet owners and large customers. So every time they buy a vehicle or they service a vehicle or buy spare parts, they are getting mileage points. ?We are also tying up with category partners like Bharat Petroleum, JK tyres and MRF tyres. Whenever he buys from our partners, the customer accu?mulates more points. He can redeem those points against vehicle purchases, se?rv?ices or even non- category purchases vacation or buying apparel or electr?onic goods. Rece?ntly we sent our platinum cust?om?ers on a foreign trip sponsored by Tata Motors,? explains Sahay.

According to Sahay, the response for telematics has been very good. ?For tippers, people do not want telematics; what they need is a data logger. They need to monitor what is happening in the vehicle, the kmpl of the vehicle, the manner in which the driver is driving it, the scheduled maintenance alerts, etc. So, we are getting a very good response,? he adds.

Telematics will be a standard feature for Prima. The company is going to increasingly provide it as a standard feature in many of its existing tractor trailers.

Telematics will be a standard feature for Prima. The company is going to increasingly provide it as a standard feature in many of its existing tractor trailers.