Is IoT A Game Changer for Transportation Industry?
IoT innovation is the next big thing in this technology-driven world. This new wave of technology is rising at a phenomenal rate and is profoundly influencing all the industries. IoT Companies /Technology helps in transferring the data without human aid due to which many enterprises are shifting towards IoT adoption to enhance their efficiency and to understand the customer needs as well. IoT has its offerings in the transportation sector as well; let’s see how this industry can reap benefits from this technology.
IoT Applications in Transportation
IoT has entirely transformed the transportation sector, and the reason behind it could be attributed to the connectivity enhancement and mobile technology as well. IoT has made road safety system quite more comfortable, also the fleet management system has also become quite organized and managed. Let’s discuss the changes that IoT has brought in the transportation sector.
1. Fleet Management
Real-time information becomes essential so that one can reap business benefits by taking timely decisions. Fleet management technology is gaining prominence among the business owners and is also improving with better maintenance cost, fuel consumption, operational efficiency, and speedy responses.
2. Transit Management
Initially, it was challenging to predict the exact time of vehicle arrival and to know its particular stop. IoT has made this information available in real-time. In this process, the data has to be tracked and sent to the data center after which it is sent to the internet-enabled mobile devices.
3. Smart Inventory Management
Real-time inventory management can be fruitful as it can assist in getting the actual status of the warehouse, production center and also the distribution center. Due to these features, inventory management costs have reduced, and maintenance has also improved. The quality and the information provided by the system strengthen traditional or legacy inventory management system.
4. Maximum Asset Utilization
With the help of a transport management system, asset tracking becomes much faster and easier. For instance, as information regarding the location or status can be tracked and managed efficiently, truck owners can know the actual load of the truck and their location too.
5. Geo-Fencing
This feature is an advanced form of GPS and can capture the asset location or device location with the help of coordinates of that area. As a result, if a driver deviates from a pre-specified path, then the concerned authority will receive an alert for the same. Automated tasks can be started with the help of Geo-fencing.
Transparency and accountability have enhanced that has made the system cost-effective and time-saving. IoT has revolutionized the way business operations were performed for the transportation sector initially.
Internet of Things, Cloud and the Future of Transportation:
Today, contextual technologies like social, mobile, analytics and cloud (the “SMAC” stack) are converging to create significant opportunities in the transportation industry. Part of this is driven by our rapidly evolving customer expectations; whether it is our customers or our associates (driver and office), the value we expect from technology in the new digital reality has changed.
We are living in a world of instant gratification, where everyone wants (and demands) information instantly and will consume it, irrespective of context. The ability to use these contextual technologies across our value chain at Schneider, and to seamlessly integrate information, is a key factor that provides insights to our businesses in near real time. This creates competitive differentiation, which is exactly what we aim to achieve in the transportation and logistics industry as a whole.
Leveraging New Trends
Our industry is heavily regulated, with new legislation such as the electronic logging device mandate, which requires electronic onboard recording of activities on the vehicle. Such technologies may be a disruptor for smaller players in the industry, as they will have to incorporate them to meet regulatory requirements. While not an issue for us at Schneider, we see the requirement to bring technology into every cab as a potential disruptor that will impact the transportation industry and perhaps others.
Finding ways to allow drivers the opportunity to engage with us through social media channels is another trend that is being looked at. This is another example of consumer technology and expectations driving how the industry needs to operate. But perhaps the biggest potential opportunity in our industry is the Internet of Things (IoT).
It has given users the ability to gather data from across the value chain, like telematics from the truck, insight from the drivers and so on. By analyzing these streams of data, companies like ours can gain insights and make changes to existing processes in near real time.
We definitely understand the important and transformative opportunities that technology and data science offer. They are not only enablers but also the foundation on which to build current and future business strategies
Key Role of IoT in Transportation
There already is a wide array of technology available today across the transportation and logistics industry landscape. We have collision detection, a plethora of sensors and many IoT devices that play a key role in everything from safety to decision engineering problems like route optimization. But as I mentioned above, we believe that the main differentiator in this arena will be IoT, and we are moving fast in that space already.
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