Data Blind Spots Leave Equipment Idle 50% of the Time, Finds New Research

NORTHBROOK, Ill. (March 25, 2026) — New research from Teletrac Navman, a connected mobility platform, found that 74% of operators cite data accessibility as the largest barrier to improving equipment utilization, resulting in assets frequently being unused 50% of the time.

The Mobilizing the Future of Fleets: 2026 Equipment Utilization Edition has uncovered a gap between digital adoption and digital maturity; 87% of fleets have invested in digital technology to monitor utilization but are not leveraging it, with 75% still relying on manual logs either as a primary tracking method or alongside digital systems, despite a recognized risk of inaccuracy and poor data quality when compared to real-time data.
 

The Role of Tech & Telematics

The research also uncovered that less than a third (28%) have a fully implemented digital tracking system, which suggests that while businesses recognize the strategic value of digital utilization technology, many have yet to realize its full operational potential.

Alain Samaha, Teletrac Navman CEO, said: “The role of telematics is rapidly evolving across our industry. Digital technology adoption across equipment fleets is widespread, but adoption alone is no longer the end goal — it’s integration. The challenge has evolved from simply collecting data to embedding it into everyday operations in a coordinated and efficient way.”

A significant number of surveyed fleet operators (87%) believe that improved location intelligence would enhance their equipment utilization, confirming real-time visibility and integrated data across systems are crucial to achieving a more proactive and efficient equipment fleet operation. Accurate, real-time performance monitoring plays a critical role in identifying inefficient usage patterns, reinforcing the importance of data-driven operations and enabling more proactive asset management and scheduling decisions.

Maintaining Equipment

Teletrac Navman’s research identified equipment maintenance as a key operational challenge, with almost a third of respondents (32%) citing maintenance requirements as frequent disruptors to project timelines. In order to minimize impact on productivity, 27% of organizations report that they frequently rent or purchase additional equipment to compensate for unavailable assets, highlighting the extent to which maintenance-related downtime can drive reactive capacity decisions.

Further to this, the report uncovered that equipment hoarding is widespread across fleet operations, with two thirds (67%) of organizations reporting that assets are sometimes held on-site but unused — behavior driven primarily by maintenance and scheduling uncertainty.

“Reactive maintenance drives up operating costs,” continued Samaha. “Equipment hoarding may ease short-term operational concerns, but it increases idle capital, reduces asset availability and often results in unnecessary rental or procurement activity.”

“This report demonstrates the need for an integrated utilization monitoring system, a single pane of glass that enables managers to make data-driven decisions, optimize operations and increase profitability.”

Visit teletracnavman.com.