Redefine fleet management with telematics data insights

A large percentage of vehicles from the Volkswagen Group brands are sold to fleet customers such as companies, taxi or rental car companies. As they are managing not one but multiple vehicles, they have special requirements for the connected services in and around the cars.

Near real-time data on milage, remaining range or activated warning lights enable fleet customers to efficiently manage their vehicle fleets. In addition, information about the next service makes it possible to plan workshop visits at an early stage, minimize vehicle downtime and thus reduce potential sales loss. The new telematics solution “Fleet Interface Data” co-developed by CARIAD and the Volkswagen Group brands Audi, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Škoda, Seat and Cupra, gives B2B customers the ability to access such telematics data in full compliance with GDPR, without requiring additional telematics hardware. This data insights can make fleet managers’ day-to-day life easier and help identify potential savings.

Single API for minimal integration effort

In the private customer business, the customer and the user of a vehicle are usually identical (one vehicle, one customer). However, in the fleet context a large number of vehicles is assigned to a company or a fleet manager (many vehicles, one customer). At the same time, the user of a fleet vehicle can be a completely different person, for example, an employed driver, a car-sharing user or a rental car driver (one vehicle, many users). The difference sounds trivial, but requires a clear identification even without having a registered user in the car.

"We have enabled our vehicle architectures for B2B business and developed a uniform API that sends raw data to the existing fleet management system of customers," says Christian Seidel, Product Owner at CARIAD.

As a result, customers can now implement the data interface into their own fleet management systems via a single API. The advantage: No additional frontend, no additional application and minimal integration effort.

Basis for new mobility services

The data interface is also the prerequisite for modern mobility services. It can not only be used to receive data, but also to send data to the vehicles in the future. This will enable, for example, rental car companies to unlock the vehicle from afar, give customers access for a certain period of time and withdraw it again.

“Fleet Interface Data” is available for capable vehicles from Audi, Volkswagen Passenger cars, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Škoda, Seat and Cupra in Germany, with other European markets to follow in 2025. The Data-as-a-service solution is brought to fleet customers by the CARIAD subsidiary Volkswagen Group Info Services AG, the central vehicle data interface of the Volkswagen Group. More information on availability of specific model data can be found on www.fleet-interface.de.