Michelin Acquires Telematics Firm From Fleetcor

More M&A activity in the fleet management space continues as Michelin acquires assets from fuel card company Fleetcor Technologies.

Reports Friday (July 21) said Michelin completed the acquisition of commercial fleet telematics company NexTraq, a move that Michelin said will expand its reach and competitiveness in the fleet services space. NexTraq provides driver tracking and safety solutions, fuel management and other offerings to boost driver productivity within commercial fleets made up of smaller vehicles, reports said.

Michelin first announced last month that it planned to acquire NexTraq, which has a reported 7,000 fleet clients and 116,000 subscribers. Financial terms of the takeover were not reported.

The acquisition follows just two months after FleetCor announced plans to make its own takeover. In May, the company said it would purchase Cambridge Global Payments for $675 million to strengthen earnings under its fleet payment services.

At the time, FleetCor also released earnings data that saw revenue in Q1 up 25 percent, surpassing expectations.

The telematics technology industry is gaining ground as a way to provide greater visibility and management over fleets while in transit. Also last May, BP and TomTom announced the rollout of BPFleetMove, which combines BP fleet card solutions with TomTom’s Telematics Service Platform, a portal through which fleet managers can analyze driver behavior and spend.

“Combining these two elements allows BP fuel card customers to save time and reduce operating costs,” said BP European Card Marketing & Operations Manager Koeno Siemons in a statement at the time. “The new app and fleet manager portal is just the start of what we will be launching in the coming months.”