Australia’s fleet sector has a significant opportunity to lift its use of connected-vehicle technology, according to Geotab founder and CEO Neil Cawse, who sees the market as behind North America and Europe in several key areas.
Speaking with Fleet News Group during a visit to Australia, Cawse said the country has strong foundations in fleet safety and heavy vehicle compliance, but remains less mature in areas including OEM telematics, electronic work diaries and video-based safety technology.
“I think Australia’s got a long way to go,” Cawse said. “[In] the US, they have always been very forward on investing in information technology. They are very keen to reinvest in automation, running the company and data.”
Cawse ranked the United States as the most mature fleet technology market globally, followed by Europe and Canada. He placed Australia ahead of Latin America, but said local fleets and vehicle manufacturers still have substantial potential to make better use of connected data.
One area that surprised him was the continued absence of electronic logbooks in Australia.
“There’s no electronic logbook yet in Australia, which was really surprising for, again, a first-world country where safety is important,” he said.
Electronic work diaries are used in many overseas markets to automate the capture of driver hours and support fatigue management, compliance and operational visibility. Their absence in Australia leaves a gap between the data available to fleet operators and the insights that could be used to improve safety and productivity.
Cawse also identified low penetration of factory-fitted telematics as a constraint on the Australian market.
“Not a lot of vehicles are still arriving in Australia that are telematics enabled,” he said. “In some of the markets, like Europe and North America, every vehicle virtually that comes off a line is now enabled with telematics.”
The difference reflects both vehicle supply and fleet technology adoption. In Europe and North America, connected-vehicle capability is increasingly treated as standard equipment, enabling manufacturers and fleet operators to monitor vehicle health, schedule maintenance, support over-the-air updates and better understand how vehicles are being used.
Cawse said the connected vehicle is becoming central to the future of automotive manufacturing.
“The vehicle’s future belongs to connected vehicles,” he said. “The future vehicle is a software-defined vehicle.”
He pointed to the ability to improve vehicles remotely as a major advantage for manufacturers and customers.
“You just have to look at examples like Tesla to see the improvements that you can make to vehicles, the recalls that you can handle over the air, to realise that that is how vehicles have to be built,” Cawse said.
“They have to be software defined. You have to be able to rapidly improve through software over-the-air updates weekly, if necessary.”
While OEM-connected data can assist vehicle manufacturers to improve products and respond earlier to faults, Cawse said personal location and journey data should remain protected.
“Where I drive and where I go is data that doesn’t belong to the OEM. The OEM shouldn’t need to know that, and that should be protected,” he said.
However, he said vehicle-system information such as drivetrain, clutch, transmission and engine performance can help manufacturers build better vehicles and provide stronger ongoing support.
The slower adoption of video telematics is another opportunity for Australian fleets, according to Cawse. He said privacy concerns and resistance from some employee groups have slowed its use, despite its potential safety benefits.
“There still seems to be a little privacy pushback for telematics, especially when it comes to video telematics,” he said. “I think the market has not seen huge adoption yet of video telematics.”
Cawse expects that to change as fleets see the safety outcomes available through cameras, driver-assistance systems and contextual video evidence.
“There’s just so much safety benefit that once it gets adopted, I think it will be adopted quickly in this market,” he said.
Despite the gaps, Cawse said Australia has areas of technology leadership, particularly in heavy-vehicle compliance and assurance.
“I do think, though, in some ways the Australian market is very first world as well,” he said.
“In the heavy truck sector, some of the services, TCA and some of the other stuff that I’ve seen, I think [it is] being done better here than other places around the world.”
For Geotab, that mix of strengths and gaps makes Australia a major growth market. The company sees local conditions—including long operating distances, large freight tasks, mining activity and a diverse fleet base—as well suited to global telematics capability.
“There’s not a lot of competition in the Australian market, and we feel it’s a great time to be really doubling down and investing there and bringing all the best technology from around the world,” Cawse said.
The opportunity for fleet operators is not simply to install more devices. It is to make connected data part of everyday fleet decision-making—improving safety, maintenance, compliance, utilisation and vehicle selection as the fleet sector moves toward more connected and software-defined vehicles.
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