More than 1,000 active companies, over 22,000 connected devices in Chile, and a network of more than 65 franchisees, blackGPS has transitioned from selling GPS devices to offering solutions for managing costs, security, and fleet operations.

Behind this evolution was a key decision: to reduce the resources dedicated to developing its own platform.

We spoke with Diego Vergara, CEO of blackGPS, to understand why the company decided to change its approach, what it was looking for in a technology partner, and how Mapon fits into its growth model.

They started 15 years ago selling GPS equipment. Then they moved on to selling software as a service and, more recently, incorporated a franchise-based growth model.

The company was the first in Chile to franchise a telematics brand. Today, their network consists of over 65 entrepreneurs selling under the blackGPS brand, using their platform and methodology.

The change significantly accelerated the incorporation of new companies.

"In 15 years of direct sales, we managed to serve 500 companies. In the first year of the franchise network, we added another 500. We doubled in twelve months what had taken us fifteen years to build," explains Diego.

For blackGPS, this growth also changed the role of technology within the business. When the platform began to support a network of franchisees, its ability to accompany that growth ceased to be solely a technical issue.

As Diego explains:

"That's the moment when the platform stops being an internal tool and becomes an asset on which others build their own business."

Before working with Mapon, blackGPS maintained its own platform. This meant dedicating a significant part of the budget and team time to software development. The company had to decide whether it wanted to continue investing resources in that direction. Their conclusion was that their advantage lay elsewhere.

"Maintaining our own platform meant allocating a huge part of the budget and team time to compete in development against much larger companies, instead of competing where we truly win: knowledge of the Latin American customer, commercial network, and service."

The decision led the company to seek a technological partner that would support their business model without detracting focus. The platform had to meet several key requirements.

Our Chilean partner needed a white-label solution that would allow them to maintain the customer relationship under their own identity: own domain, own applications, and own billing.

They also sought hardware independence and an open and documented API. Their corporate clients need to integrate fleet information with systems like ERP, WMS, and regulatory platforms.

Another requirement was to have a product roadmap that continued to evolve in areas such as video telematics, AI, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), Driver Monitoring Systems (DMS), tachograph, and cold chain.

The company also needed a corporate standard: stability, availability, and certifications that would allow them to pass supplier audits required by clients like Walmart or Codelco.

But there was a particularly important condition for their model: a multi-level structure. They needed their franchisees and sub-distributors to be able to manage their own portfolios within the same structure.

According to the company, this was one of the factors that set Mapon apart from other options.

"Other alternatives gave us a white-label platform; Mapon gave us a platform on which we could build a network."

Diego also highlights another aspect of the choice: being able to resolve platform, devices, integrations, and support with the same partner, instead of coordinating multiple suppliers.

The change wasn't just about replacing a platform. It also involved a shift in where blackGPS dedicates its resources.

Previously, Diego explains, adding a new feature could take months of development, along with the associated cost and risk. Meanwhile, the sales team had to wait.

Now, blackGPS can rely on the product roadmap and focus on bringing those solutions to the market.

"We went from being a company that made software to a company that is an expert in the fleet business," says Diego.

According to blackGPS, this allows them to open a new operation in weeks rather than quarters, train franchisees on a standard platform, and allocate part of the budget that was previously dedicated to development to commercial growth and service.

It has also expanded the solutions it can offer. From a proposal focused on tracking and reporting, blackGPS moved to incorporate AI-powered video telematics, ADAS and DMS, fuel control, cold chain, preventive maintenance, digital inspections, route planning, work hours control, and APIs, among other functionalities.

For Diego, the important thing is not having a broader catalog, but the business opportunities it creates.

"The cold chain opened the doors to the food and pharmaceutical sectors for us. AI video opened passenger transport and mining, where the purchasing driver is accident rate, not theft. Digital inspections and work hours control opened contractors and field services for us. And the API is literally the entry requirement for large corporate accounts."

Working with Mapon does not mean that blackGPS has stopped developing its own value proposition.

An example is PilotoPro, their driver ranking and certification system. They developed it using driving data and the API available on the platform.

"We were able to create it because we had the data and the API available," says Diego.

PilotoPro allows for the comparison of driver behavior and identifies differences that can affect fuel consumption, wear and tear, cargo damage, and accident rates.

For Diego, evaluating driver behavior after the damage is done is costly:

"You find out after the fuel has been burned, after the tires have worn out, after the cargo has been damaged, or, in the worst case, after an accident."

With driving and video data, blackGPS points out that their clients can identify these patterns within the first few weeks and take action sooner.

PilotoPro also has a positive side that Diego highlights:

"Most fleets do not know who their best driver is. With the ranking, they know, and they can recognize them. In a market with driver turnover like we have in Latin America, this is a retention tool as important as the salary."

For blackGPS, PilotoPro demonstrates that relying on a partner's technology does not prevent creating their own products on top of it.

The change in blackGPS coincides with another evolution that Diego observes in the Latin American market.

"Ten years ago in Latin America, GPS was sold for one reason only: theft. The customer's question was 'Where is my truck?'. Today, security is still relevant, but it's no longer the main argument. The question has changed to 'How do I reduce my cost per kilometer?'.

Answering that second question requires going beyond location: analyzing fuel, idling, driving behavior, working hours, or maintenance.

Here, Diego highlights Mapon's accumulated experience in the European market, where fuel prices and regulations have been pushing transport companies to control these costs for years.

"We didn't have to discover or develop that logic; it came to us in the roadmap. And it allows us to sit in front of a Chilean client with a higher standard than the local market, not offering them what's being used here, but what will be the standard here in a few years."

For blackGPS, relying on Mapon does not mean replacing what differentiates it in its own market. Mapon provides a platform, devices, integrations, and support in one place, with a roadmap that continues to evolve; blackGPS focuses on the knowledge of the Latin American market, its commercial network, the on-site service, and the multi-level structure of franchisees and sub-distributors it has built on that basis.

"In this business, the difference is not the map, it's who will install and repair when the truck is stopped," explains Diego.

That's why, after having developed and maintained its own platform, Diego poses a question to other telematics providers:

"Is your competitive advantage in the code or in the market? Maintaining your own platform out of technical pride is the most expensive way to distract yourself from the business, and I say this from the experience of having done it."

His advice comes with a nuance: a white-label platform does not replace a good on-site service team. That remains the partner's task, and in this region, it is half of the business.

The company's goal now is to achieve a presence in 15 South American countries by 2028, relying on the same structure that already allowed it to double its portfolio in just one year with a network of 65 franchisees.

If your advantage is in the market and not in the code, Mapon can provide the technological foundation on which to build the business.

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Do you want to grow your telematics business under your own brand? Contact our team to learn about Mapon's partnership collaboration model.