In a previous blog, we discussed how Location-Based Services (LBS) are reinventing many industries and creating new business opportunities for technology solution providers. Opportunities to provide IoT-powered, location-aware solutions are particularly abundant in the fleet management industry, where vehicles, cargo, and personnel are often in transit. Fleet IoT solutions offer an opportunity for the industry to grow an innovate in ways it never has before.
Solution providers thriving in the new age of fleet IoT are delivering products that support the major functions of vehicle, driver, and operations management. To address the needs of these areas, six key IoT solutions have emerged:
Each of these six technologies allows fleet solution providers a way to add value to their existing products or bring new solutions to market. To remain competitive in this rapidly expanding market, you have to first understand the key capabilities and requirements of these technology groups:
Fleet managers need vehicle management capabilities to remotely track vehicle locations, movements, and velocities in real-time. Some of the most valuable vehicle management solutions perform either vehicle diagnostics or security tracking functions.
Fleet operators are constantly seeking ways to limit downtime, extend vehicle lifecycles, and reduce repair costs. Vehicle diagnostics capabilities help solve these needs by integrating applications with fleet management devices, such as those that comply with the most recent on-board diagnostics (ODB-II) standard to monitor vehicle engines, chassis, and on-board accessories. With vehicle diagnostics capabilities, fleet organisations can monitor and analyse vehicle data to initiate preventative maintenance, increase uptime, and reduce costs.
To further meet your customers’ vehicle diagnostic needs and increase sales opportunities, enhance your vehicle diagnostics products and services to offer adjacent, remote diagnostic capabilities as value-added services. With these enhanced solutions, your customers will benefit from access to expert troubleshooting and guidance regardless of location.
Transportation businesses and insurance providers need location-based security tracking solutions to help pinpoint and recover stolen vehicles. The demand for security tracking technologies continues to increase, with ATKearney estimating that stolen vehicle recovery solutions will be used in nearly half of all vehicles by 2025. This expected growth represents a significant business opportunity for fleet IoT solution vendors.
When designing your security tracking solution, consider offering features that enable customers to immobilise a stolen vehicle and explore opportunities to partner with local authorities to deliver automatic alerts when a theft occurs.
Transportation organisations need solutions to monitor individual driver performance and activity for compliance with regulatory requirements. The added bonus of this monitoring is the ability to take advantage of usage-based insurance (UBI) pricing options.
IoT applications help Fleet Managers track driving habits – such as speed, blinker usage, and braking time – and identify areas where their drivers can be safer and more productive. Fleet Managers can set rules and alerts for when drivers exceed speed maximums, brake too hard, drive too many hours, or do not follow the prescribed routes. It is another way that digital technology is solving an analogue problem. IoT-enabled solutions not only keep drivers safer, but make their jobs easier, enhancing employee satisfaction. Erik Jonnaert, secretary general of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) says “This is essential if intelligent transport systems and the connected car are to fulfil their potential to contribute towards societal goals such as facilitating traffic management, improving road safety, reducing fuel consumption and bringing down CO2 emissions.”
Fleet operators need telematics-based insurance risk management solutions to take advantage of UBI options. Many commercial motor insurers award discounts to fleets who have implemented solutions that provide driver behaviour data to calculate individual risk profiles and personalised premium calculations. If you offer insurance risk management solutions to your fleet customers, consider marketing UBI solutions to insurance companies, helping these carriers offer new and highly attractive offerings to their customers.
Fleet managers need operational management solutions to track cargo and to efficiently conduct field service operations. Intel estimates that the global market for these types of solutions represents a nearly $2 billion opportunity.
BSI Supply Chain Services and Solutions assessed that companies lose more than an estimated £60 million in UK alone due to cargo theft. To reduce these expensive losses, shipping and transportation organisations need transport management solutions to safeguard goods and cargo in transit.
To tap into opportunities in this market, provide solutions that utilise sensors embedded in trailers and shipping containers that deliver tracking data to your fleet IoT application. By designing your solution to deliver real-time visibility into cargo conditions such as temperature, humidity, or vibration levels in addition to location and security features you can add greater value.
Fleet managers need field servicing solutions to improve operational efficiencies that enable transportation businesses to manage mobile workers as they conduct vehicle servicing and repairs. These solutions access data generated by most fleet IoT applications, making this a highly desirable and adjacent business for fleet IoT solution providers. By delivering bundled, comprehensive solutions that combine applications and devices, you can add value for your customers by simplifying their field service technology needs.
Solution providers able to successfully deliver one or more of these six value-added offerings will be well-positioned to gain competitive advantages in an increasingly heated marketplace. Consider expanding and enhancing your existing IoT fleet management solutions portfolios with these services to enter new segments of the fleet IoT solutions market, increase revenues, and better serve your client needs today and in the future.
Looking for more information on how your organisation can take advantage of the many revenue opportunities with fleet IoT solutions? Contact a trusted advisor at KORE to learn how we can simplify the complexity of IoT and help you grow your business.
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