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What are the new cutting-edge technologies and possibilities in the future that are available in Fleet Management and Telematics for the top-of-the-line “Gold Standard” offering? Specifically, who are the players/providers of this technology? What is the technology? What is the value-add benefit from the new technology? Any pricing available? What type of network will it run on? How do autonomous fleets fit into this framework?
Telematics was introduced some 15 years ago to record and collect the data to improve the movement of vehicles. Although there have been concerns regarding telematics invading the privacy of the drivers, telematics comes with various benefits like the ability to analyze how routes and the timing of journeys can be modified to save time and money. Besides these benefits, vehicle data like acceleration and speed can be used by companies to improve their driver training and reduce fuel consumption and the occurrence of accidents.
Tom Sloan, director of telematics and safety products for Donlen, stated that, in the future, technologies will be focused on more sophisticated feature sets, data integration and data analysis of the all the information collected from each vehicle in the fleet. The main players providing these technologies are AT&T, Verizon, GPS Insight, Geotab, CalAmp, WEX and Faster Asset Solutions.
TECHNOLOGIES
1. Commercial fleet operators are developing single data and control centers which will integrate the operations of individual depots. Stobart Group, one of the UK’s largest hauliers and logistics companies, report that such data centers will help improve business efficiency of the fleets. The drivers will log in the delivery details in real-time with a new type electronic logging devices (ELDs) analyze the Big Data and instantly and efficiently rearrange the vehicle movements in cases of unexpected loads, accidents and breakdowns, and reduce the number of empty truck. The vehicles will also have telematics connectivity via OEM-installed technology and built-in 4G modem or Wi-Fi hotspot.
2. Hakan Samuelsson, president of Volvo Cars, reported about the development of the new Volvo cars in which no one will be killed or seriously injured. They demonstrated this by showing the telemetry data collected from an experiment where a new Volvo sport utility vehicle slipped off the road into a three-foot ditch and crashed into a banking. The data showed that humans in the vehicle would have only sustained at worst minor injuries. Future telematics will provide structural, preventative safety features, like pedestrian and animal detection and road edge and barrier detection, integrated into the vehicle. Other safety technologies include in-cab video monitoring, collision avoidance, and fatigue detection technologies.
3. Other fleet management technologies which allow continuous communication with nearby vehicles include “intelligent” cruise control, vehicles that automatically react to the surrounding vehicles, vehicles that have automated “follow the leader” driving mode, emergency braking on main city roads and autonomous driving. All these features are being developed by top industry players like Volvo.
4. Another gold-standard technology is the SQ.7 Mobile Shop which allows customers to control their fleet using ruggedized Pocket PC wireless hand held computers with built in barcode scanners. This technology greatly reduces the data entry time and minimizes errors. As a result, the wrench time increases. Another technology, MetTel, provides Internet of Things (IoT) solutions in the form of global connectivity achieved through a single SIM product and Fleet Management Solutions that combine telematics, mobile devices, mobile network connectivity and mobile worker and management applications. Other IoT solutions include Wi-Fi-enabled sensors like door sensor, a cargo sensor, an onboard weigh-scale system, camera, and vision system which increase the connectivity of the vehicle.
The prices of the fleet management technologies like Telogis, Fleetio and ClearPathGPS vary vastly depending on the business size they cater to.
In conclusion, the new cutting edge technologies available for gold standard fleet management are single data control centers, structural safety features and IoT enable devices with autonomous fleets running on a 5G network.