Telematics expert warns vehicle tracking industry against under pricing

David Isom, managing director of V-SOL vehicle tracking, has warned against the low-cost pricing structures increasingly being used in the telematics industry, claiming the true value of the service is no longer being recognised by customers.

David, who launched V-SOL in 1997, says: Vehicle tracking can transform a businesss operations, improving efficiency across the board, boosting performance and generating major cost savings all elements that in the current market most companies would relish.  The problem we have as an industry is that over the last four to five years pricing rather than performance has become the main selling tool and tracking technology is now too cheap.

As a result organisations in all markets fail to see the true value of the tracking services now available.  While telematics technology has undergone major advancements over the last 10 years, allowing it to co-ordinate and direct developments across a business with a wide reaching impact, as an industry we have under priced our solutions at all levels.

With vehicle tracking currently available from as little as 0.25 per day, and a growing trend for pay as you go solutions, David warns that the industry is in danger of positioning itself as a low-cost business partner with no real value placed on the service and expertise it can offer.

In most other areas business technology is charged at a premium, particularly for the latest generation solutions, adds David.  As an industry we need to develop greater awareness of what our technology really offers, and the positive impact a quality system can deliver on business performance.  If we continue pricing ourselves too cheaply nobody will take us seriously, and that can only result in a weakened telematics industry in the future.

V-SOL has been supplying live vehicle tracking longer than any other company in the UK, and is the only company to design and manufacture its technology in Britain working with organisations such as the Ministry of Defence, EDF Energy and Goldstar Heathrow.  It has recently become the first company in the World to receive the new BS EN ISO 9001:2008 accreditation for all of its operations.