Blanaid O’Regan. Image: Andres Poveda Photography
Made accessible via the Nevo EV platform, Geotab telematics will help the Irish broadband company’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.
Siro, the broadband company set up as a joint venture between ESB and Vodafone, has teamed up with telematics business Geotab to help transition its fleet to electric vehicles.
Currently rolling out a €1bn gigabit broadband network across all counties in Ireland, Siro has been taking steps to transition its fleet of 54 vehicles to EVs, having completed the process for 80pc of its vehicles earlier this year.
The company’s network is available in more than 540,000 premises across all Irish cities and 135 towns. Siro also claims to be on track to provide access to its network to more than 700,000 premises by 2026.
Now, insights provided by telematics data from Geotab technology, made accessible to Siro by EV platform Nevo, will enable the broadband company to track its fleet and reduce its carbon footprint in line with targets for 2030.
Blanaid O’Regan, director of people and culture at Siro, said that electrifying its fleet has been a “key priority” for the broadband company as it aims to become more sustainable.
“As we have demonstrated through the insights we glean from Geotab, the transition isn’t simply a case of shifting to EVs because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it makes business sense,” she said.
“We are also benefiting from innovation as Geotab’s technology is priceless to us as we can accurately track the reduction in our carbon footprint and the savings that we’re making by transitioning to electric vehicles.”
‘Makes business sense’
Prior to the partnership, Siro – whose EV fleet drives 2.6m km a year – did not have access to data that would improve its fleet’s efficiency by ensuring adequate charge and optimised route planning.
Based in Ontario, Canada, Geotab uses IoT technologies to help businesses keep track of their vehicles by installing devices and giving them data across metrics such as performance, location and driver behaviour to improve fleet efficiency.
“The analytics on that data is provided to fleets to help them solve problems such as how vehicles are behaving, what’s the fuel usage and what the carbon output looks like,” Edward Kulperger, senior VP of Geotab EMEA, told SiliconRepulic.com earlier this year.
Founded in 2000 by CEO Neil Cawse, Geotab now sees approximately 3.6m connected vehicles across all inhabited continents sending data up to their cloud, with around 55bn data points being sent to its environment every day.
“Progressive businesses like Siro are leading the way in the business community in the transition to EVs and we hope that more companies will follow their lead,” said David Savage, vice-president of Geotab Ireland and UK.
“There is a clear issue with the commercial adoption of electric vehicles in Ireland … only 3pc of monthly sales of light commercial vehicles are electric, yet here is a business that is showing that not only can it be done, but that it makes business sense to do it.”
Last month, Siro bagged one of the top prizes at this year’s European Broadband Awards, as it was named winner of the Innovative Models of Financing, Business and Investment category.
10 things you need to know direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of essential sci-tech news.
