Making sense of the constant flow of telematics data and footage in fleet management
2025 brought a lot of innovative solutions with the focus on understanding insights, analytics and more through a new lens. With footage provided alongside data, has become essential for modern fleet management. 2026 is just around the corner, it’s time to consider stepping up your business with future-proofed solutions and adopt a system that can meet your current and future goals, regardless of your current standing with telematics in the business.
But before we get there, theirs an important aspect to consider. While technology offers significant operational benefits, their successful adoption hinges on effective change management. Understanding the key steps to manage this transition smoothly is crucial and needs to consider performance, team alignment, and privacy.
This article explores the fundamental aspects you should consider when implementing new technology, ensuring a positive, productive rollout.
1. Appoint a Knowledgeable Project Lead
When you consider a successful implementation, most start with strong leadership and communication to keep the project accountable and the coordination smooth. Designating a project lead who has a deep understanding of technology, the business and the requirements is key as they’ll oversee the entire implementation process, manage timelines, ensure budgets are considered and serve as the primary point of contact between the business and the provider.
2. Involve Your Team Early and Often
Change can be difficult and unsettling, especially when it involves part of your job. Engaging your entire team beyond senior managers, like drivers, dispatchers, and administrative staff from the outset helps to collect valuable feedback, uncover potential challenges, and changes to workflows and practices. All this helps to build trust and buy-in from early stages to head off resistance, allowing for a culture of transparency and collaboration.
3. Establish a Collaborative Relationship with Your Technology Provider
Knowing your team project team with the telematics provider is a partnership is important for the transformation journey. Setting clear expectations for implementation, timelines, support, training, privacy, security, and more helps to settle expectations early and everyone is working toward success. A strong partnership can help navigate technical and operational hurdles as early as possible.
4. Implement Comprehensive Training and Coaching Programs
Setting up coaching programs early can help users thrive and confidences improve. It can provide hands-on experience, offer ongoing coaching, technical support post-implementation, and other resources like manuals, FAQs and guides. Tailored training helps everyone feel competent and supported as they adapt to new tools. These can be completed upon implementation as initial training, on-going training as catchup sessions for staff, or onboarding for new team members.
5. Pilot Test with a Small User Group
Before a full-scale rollout, consider setting up a pilot with a select group of users or for a select subset of the solution in the business. This can help identify technical gaps or glitches before a wider release, gather direct feedback to refine processes, and minimise disruptions. Pilot testing ensures a smoother transition and increases the likelihood of successful adoption.
6. Focus on Immediate Objectives and Monitor Long-Term Impact
Before even approaching a provider, having an idea of goals is important, but when we come to implementation, having a clear understanding of achievable goals for the initial phase is important for success metrics. Simple things to start off like reduction in vehicle downtime, improvements in driver behaviour metrics or route efficiencies. In the long run, you can use data analytics tools to monitor these KPIs over time to analyse trends, evaluate safety improvements, and operational gains, so you can adjust strategies accordingly.
7. Develop a Risk Management Plan
Anticipating risks and challenges ahead of time is tricky but crucial as you need to forecast possible resistance from staff, technical issues, or privacy concerns. Outlining mitigation strategies upfront and providing clear communication throughout, contingency plans for downtime, and updating policies (and regular reviews) all helps with proactive risk management to safeguard your investment and continue to build trust. It’s important to review progress and plans continuously make changes as the technology meets your business’s real world.
Special Consideration: Video Telematics and Privacy
If video telematics is part of your project, while it adds a powerful layer of insight through in-cab and external cameras, enhancing safety and accountability, it also raises privacy concerns among drivers and stakeholders. While this is an initial concern amongst staff and drivers, once implemented, concerns are reduced as they get to see how they’re used. But to address concerns before this happens:
- Be transparent about what data is captured, how it is stored, and who has access
- Comply with local and national privacy laws and regulations
- Involve drivers in discussions about privacy safeguards and usage policies
- Use video data primarily for safety coaching and incident review, not punitive measures
Implementing new technology in fleet management is a multifaceted process that requires careful planning, communication, and ongoing support. By appointing a knowledgeable project lead, involving your team early, collaborating with your provider, investing in training, piloting solutions, monitoring outcomes, and managing risks, including privacy concerns with video telematics, you set the stage for a successful implementation for the future of the business.
Embracing change thoughtfully not only enhances technology adoption but also strengthens your fleet’s performance and resilience in 2026 and beyond.