Wheels of insight: Transforming YPG’s fleet management
The General Services Administration (GSA) at Yuma Proving Ground (YPG), where vehicles kick up dust and engines roar against the desert, stands at the forefront of a major transformation.
It all began with a stroke of the presidential pen. In 2022 President
Joe Biden signed an executive order mandating that every vehicle used by the federal government, including the military, be equipped with telematics.
The initiative aims to enhance fleet management, optimize vehicle efficiency, and achieve cost savings across government agencies. So, by 2026, all government vehicles should have it in place.
YPG Fleet Manager Adam Wood explained that telematics is a method of monitoring a vehicle by using
GPS technology and on-board diagnostics to plot its movement on a computerized map.
It involves installing a small device, often referred to as a black box, in the vehicle to provide real-time data, such as its location, average speed, idling time, seatbelt usage, aggressive driving behavior, hard cornering, fuel consumption, and engine diagnostics.
“The vehicle’s computer has always been capturing this information,”
Wood said. “Now. using telematics, we have a user interface system that makes it available to see on a website.”
YPG has made remarkable progress so far in becoming compliant. Out of the 750 GSA vehicles in its fleet, 500 have already been outfitted
with telematics. But what about the remaining 250 vehicles?
According to Wood, those remaining vehicles – mostly older models – will receive the device once they have been replaced with newer counterparts.
“We are already ahead of schedule,” Wood said. “We are installing more and more every day, but it still may take a year or two to fully integrate.”
The transformation is also already paying off, with months of data revealing promising trends.
Initially, speeding incidents were high, but since word has spread about telematics, they have decreased, contributing to safer operations.
Regarding maintenance, continuous monitoring of the vehicle’s performance allows for the early detection of issues, leading to cost savings.
“Some of the check engine lights we’ve had have been very severe, and we wanted the vehicle to stop operating so the engine didn’t get blown,” Wood said.
Hoping to dispel any rumors, Wood clarifies that YPG’s telematics does not record audio.
He added that telematics is essential a tool to make sure vehicles are being used effectively and maintained to support critical testing efforts.