The City of Saskatoon says having GPS installed in all its vehicles will not only save money, but reduce emissions.
City officials said all vehicles in the city will be installed with telematics starting in 2020 to identify trends in fuel usage, idling and operations behaviour.
“Historically GPS was used for vehicle locating; however, we intend to focus on data analysis to identify ways to save money, reduce emissions and, most importantly, improve safety,” Goran Saric, the city’s director of roadways, fleet and support, said Monday in a statement.
“The city could save up to 20 per cent in fuel costs by addressing speeding and wasteful idling, detecting rapid acceleration, optimizing routes and reducing trips.”
This could result in a reduction of 1,600 tonnes of CO2 emissions, Saric said, as the city works towards its emissions reduction target of 80 per cent by 2050.
He said there are other tangible benefits to the initiative.
“With real-time fleet data, we’ll be able to keep citizens informed of our activities like snow plowing, waste collection and repairs, and make our operations much more accountable in all that we do on a daily basis.”
City officials said several vehicles were outfitted with the devices in the fall to iron out any bugs and create a training module.
Around 800 vehicles and pieces of equipment will use telematics once it is fully operational.
The Saskatoon Police Service, Saskatoon Fire Department and Saskatoon Transit already use GPS for routing and fleet safety.
Vecima Networks Inc. was awarded the contract for its Nero Global Tracking telematics solution, and SaskTel received the connectivity contract.