IoT: Building Blocks of a Transportation System
Summary
The transportation industry has faced challenges such as communication gap, lack of supply chain visibility, vehicle traceability, and fuel theft and usage. However, with the incorporation of IoT technology, fleet management has become easier and more efficient. IoT-based vehicle tracking, improved supply chain visibility, truck load weighing, and theft detection are some of the benefits of using IoT services. Companies such as Vamosys offer complete solutions to all fleet issues through IoT-based services.
There is no doubt transportation connects places, people, things to every nook and corner in the world. It bridges the links between the economy and society through transporting goods and services across various transportation services.The transportation and logistics industries among various sectors have been booming over the past 30 years.
However, without the help of technology, fleet owners and different logistics sectors were facing challenges like damage to the asset, fuel theft, vehicle tracking, and security issues. To overcome these challenges, many organizations have opted for technological advancement in the fleet industry. Let’s discuss the problems faced by transportation systems without technology.
Challenges faced by the transportation system without technological advancements
With the increase in selling and buying goods across different regions, several obstacles emerged during the transportation period, and fleet owners found it difficult to achieve a success rate with good ROI.
1.Communication Gap
The first and foremost drawback in fleet management is the communication gap between the fleet owners and drivers. The actual communication will happen through continuous calls, and fleet owners will get to know every detail through phone calls. This led to several loopholes in delivering the services and goods at the destined location. Most fleet managers will do the guesswork without knowing the exact details.
2. Lack of Supply Chain Visibility
There is no real-time vision of the goods from the source to destination, and fleet managers have no idea what’s happening in the supply chain cycle. The broad knowledge in every area helps to make better decisions and prevent errors. You can have a clear idea of how to collaborate with the orders, optimize the work, enhance connectivity to achieve proper executions when exposed to technology.
3.Vehicle Traceability
Knowing the vehicle’s whereabouts is important in a fleet business; tracking your assets with vehicle location gives peace of mind to the fleet owners. In addition, real-time visibility provides transparency in supply chain operations to transport goods effectively. It gives a clear view to pinpoint the risks and helps to take a quick call at the right time.
4.Fuel Theft and Usage
Fuel is the primary source for transportation; nearly 7 percent of the budget is spent on fuel. Fleet business experiences loss due to high consumption of fuel, and the worst part is there is no clue how and where the fuel is consumed.
Strenuous driving activities, overtime idling increases maintenance costs, even after the periodical maintenance; if the fuel consumption issue is not resolved, then your driver might be stealing fuel, or the fuel theft is happening in vehicle parking areas by someone.
IOT in the Transportation Industry
Transportation has multiple roles and activities like trip planning, inventory management, the supply chain that has to be monitored continuously at once. As the challenges emerged from each operation in the transportation industry, the delaying of goods increased, leading to decreased clients satisfaction. With complete understanding, many companies came forward to provide Transportation Management Services by incorporating IOT technology to make logistics operations an easy and simple way.
The Saas-based companies embrace the power of digital transformation services to surpass competitors and provide solutions through smartphones and web applications. The main goal of logistics is to transport goods from one location to another location, and the Internet Of Things made it possible to carry out the operations digitally. Now, fleet managers can receive detailed updates on smartphones without making a call to drivers. There is no doubt Internet Of Things did wonders to transform the fleet operations to streamline the unorganized processes to increase visibility.
According to some projections, transportation is expected to invest $40 billion in IoT by 2020. So, what does this imply? By utilizing cutting-edge technology, the industry is poised to change operations digitally. Because the transportation business touches people’s lives on a daily basis, their decision to join IoT services would make their lives easier.
Benefits of Using IoT services
1.Improved Truck Tracking with Transparency
Managing the route, driver activity, vehicle movement, and fuel consumption is critical for increasing productivity and increasing return on investment. Companies seek innovative ways to re-engineer their existing processes as traditional solutions fail to meet expectations and deliver outcomes. IoT also wonderfully sets the tone for their company.
It’s a lot easier to follow routes, manage drivers and cars, limit fuel usage, and so on using an IoT-based vehicle tracking and fleet management system. IoT devices deliver precise real-time data that helps users make better business decisions by streamlining operations and alerting them.
2. Improved Supply Chain Visibility
Businesses can use the Internet of Things to find out how long it takes to sell a given amount of inventory, how to maximize deliveries, which employees have better track records, and which distribution centers have higher conversion rates. As a result, company managers can more correctly plan operations and predict the outcomes of business choices.
3.Truck Load Weighing
For most transportation businesses, precisely weighing the truck loaded with products is a difficult task, but it is necessary. The correct weight of a vehicle may be measured in real-time with an IoT-enabled weighing system packed with smart sensors, and the data can be transmitted to users via mobile applications in no time. In addition, the system increases payload, decreases fines and eliminates mistakes.
4.Theft Detection with Improved Safety
Connected hardware to detect intrusion, sensors for real-time asset tracking, alarm systems, smart fences, and anti-theft solutions are provided through IoT. For example, a logistics business manager will be able to locate an IoT solution that improves inventory and supply chain visibility while also protecting against frauds, product theft, fuel theft, and tampering.
Vamosys FleetOS software offers a complete solution to all fleet issues and simplifies fleet management with IoT based services through smartphones and web applications. FleetOS is an administration tool for assigning trips, and drivers use the Vamosys DRS app to interface with fleet owners. These FMS apps allow you to track your current location, check your fuel usage, and produce digital trip reports.
Sushanthi
Sushanthi is a Content Writer who wishes to be the voice of brands to project their innovative ideas and stories through her writing skills.