General Motors (GM) Fleet has partnered with Spireon, a leading connected vehicle aftermarket company, to bring OnStar customers expanded telematics offerings by May 2017.
Spireon will "leverage OnStar's proprietary application programs and interfaces to provide telematics data and help improve the efficiency of the fleets nation-wide," according to Ed Peper, GM Fleet vice president.
The partnership will provide the ability of GM to create customized solutions for fleet customers, through the build-in connectivity of OnStar.
Currently 800,000 GM vehicles are installed with Spireon solutions, according to Spireon CEO Kevin Weiss, and this partnership will enhance the offerings of their FleetLocate solution to GM Fleet customers. FleetLocate is a vehicle and assets management solution which allows fleet managers to monitor vehicles and assets locations, activities and conditions within the vehicle, as well as driving behaviors, using mobile applications designed for the driver and fleet managers.
Before the partnership, Spireon customers had to install an aftermarket device to their vehicles that collects information through a hardwired device or through OBDII-based connections. Now, customers will be able to directly integrate the solution by simply pushing the "little blue" OnStar button installed in GM vehicles, with no downtime for installation.
"GM customers can now gain exclusive vehicle diagnostics ... through the use of the FleetLocate mobile app, as well as the major app that manages the entire fleet for fleet owners," Weiss said. "With enhanced OnStar data integrated into our platform, FleetLocate will be able to integrate new safety features for GM customers, such as acceleration alerts and seat belt usage, as well as maintenance data."
Peper said the partnership came about after a GM Fleet customer wanted use GM's built-in technology instead of aftermarket hardware, but also "valued their experience with Spireon." The customer asked if GM would work with Spireon, and allow them to tap into the built-in hardware of OnStar to obtain the data they needed. Soon after, Spireon was connected with OnStar's technical teams.
Now that service will be offered to other customers starting mid May 2017.
"With today's announcement we are talking about expanding our abilities to work with telematics service providers," Greg Ross, director of OnStar business. "These partners serve customers with mixed fleets and older vehicles ... [and they can now tap into] things like data storage, analysis, common reporting, command functions, with no hardware required on newer GM vehicles."
In 2016, there were 500,000 GM vehicles on the roads equipped with OnStar, over 50,000 of those are equipped with a fleet management system, according to Ross.
"At GM we work very hard to increase the number of services we provide to our customers, and some of those services will help them more efficiently manage their assets, identity the cost-drivers in their business, optimize fleet performance and encourage safe driving," Peper said.
