Ford Commercial Solutions Taps ARI for Telematics Service

ARI, a Mount Laurel, New Jersey-based provider of fleet services, recently announced a new agreement with Ford Commercial Solutions “that will provide a seamless telematics solution for fleet customers.”

The agreement combines Ford Commercial Solutions’ Data Services product with ARI insights, ARI’s proprietary fleet management portal, to deliver real-time visibility into the precise operating conditions of fleet vehicles.

“Telematics and advanced analytics offer fleets tremendous potential but the reality is that there are often business challenges that must be addressed to unlock this value,” said Don Woods, director, customer information systems for ARI. “Our new agreement with Ford Commercial Solutions eliminates two of the biggest roadblocks fleets typically face when implementing a telematics solution, device installation and data management, helping our customers easily leverage this technology to make their fleet data insightful and actionable.”

By the end of 2019, most Ford vehicles will be connected, with many models already offering connectivity options today. These vehicles will include a built-in telematics unit to transmit data directly from the vehicle to the Transportation Mobility Cloud (TMC), an open platform that securely manages information flow to and from the vehicles’ embedded modems, eliminating the need for third-party hardware and the required installation downtime.

The information flows seamlessly from the TMC into ARI’s data warehouse, where it is integrated with the customer’s fleet data and available for comprehensive analysis via ARI insights, according to ARI.

“We are pleased to welcome ARI as an authorized Ford telematics service provider,” said Lee Jelenic, CEO of Ford Commercial Solutions. “Fleet operators told us they want to be able to choose how best to manage their fleets and this agreement with ARI allows us to offer our customers additional choice.”

Customers also will receive the benefit of OEM-direct data, providing access to a greater range of information with precision accuracy, according to ARI. In addition to traditional metrics such as location tracking and driver-behavior monitoring, fleet operators will have increased transparency into vehicle diagnostics, fuel levels and downtime tracking.

“Telematics data powers our predictive analytics platform by providing a real-time, fully transparent view into fleet operations, helping you easily identify outliers and manage by exceptions,” Woods said. “Many of our customers are already using these powerful tools to gain a deeper, more meaningful insight into business operations which in turn fuels smarter, data-driven decisions.”

A business unit of Ford Smart Mobility, Ford Commercial Solutions helps fleets improve their operational effectiveness by offering OEM-grade vehicle data verified by Ford engineers such as fuel use and vehicle health alerts.