Current Trends in Fleet Management Systems

“Berg Insight’s definition of a fleet management solution is a vehicle based system that incorporates data logging, satellite positioning and data communication to a back-office application,” says a report on Fleet Management in China, a part of the M2M Research Series. While this is not a new phenomenon, the increase in the number of vehicles, in order to meet global demand, has resulted in further sophistication of the industry.

It is being conjectured that the Asia-Pacific has the maximum potential for growth in fleet management revenue, given the positive government initiatives and a burgeoning e-commerce market. The number of fleet management systems in active use is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22.9 percent from 2.1 million units at the end of 2014 to 5.9 million by 2019, as per the analysis of the Berg Insight report.

Industrial growth, especially in the developing regions, like Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, is also among the reasons for the healthy growth of the fleet management industry.

The increasing number of vehicles naturally indicates an increase in costs. It is especially necessary at this time to optimize the fleet so as to increase the per unit productivity of the fleet employed. The basics of achieving this includes effective analysis of quantified metrics and taking a proactive stance to the hindrances possible. In other words, optimization is possible through developing one's foresight.

It is comes as no surprise then that the 2015 Frost and Sullivan report, Benefits of Effective Deployment of Fleet Management System, stated, “Companies that can leverage software solutions to assist with tracking and analysis for fleet utilization will find the task much easier and can experience an increase of 15-20% in vehicle utilization.” Moreover, technology could also be utilized for boosting safety and DOT compliance,

While increasing profitability through optimization is a central concern that the FMS tries to resolve, another sector that it makes significant contribution to is increased sustainability in the industry. The pressure to reduce carbon footprints has been a major factor for growth and incorporation of Fleet Management Systems.

Effective tracking not only helps in better route management and tracking driver behavior, it also helps in timely intervention to combat engine problems, so as to check carbon emissions. This will also result in better fuel economy and, ultimately, in the reduction of maintenance costs. Diagnostic maintenance can help save up to 4.1% on repairs, say the estimates provided by Fleet Commander, a leading Fleet Management Software.

Diamler's 'Future Truck 2025' showed a driver updating their status on a tablet, while the vehicle automatically maintained lanes and distance from other vehicles. There are other projects that are trying to develop platooning of trucks, wherein the trucks on automated systems follow each other in closer proximity than would have been safe manually, resulting in less fuel consumption for all.

Given that the USA has been suffering major driver shortages, Research and Development units have been trying to develop driverless trucks. However, the safety of such a practice is still being debated, since it might make the trucks vulnerable to hijacking. These vehicles are still to be tested thoroughly before their release in the third decade of the millennium.