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Connectivity in Industrial Vehicles Grows |
NEWS |
The number of industrial vehicles fitted with a telematics device continues to grow. Of the 7.2 million industrial vehicles across the Americas and Europe (including forklifts, tow motors, order pickers, man lifts, and yard trucks), 1.5 million now have some form of telematics installed. As the level of Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure grows, so does the level of operational data available for organizations to leverage.
In addition to the growth in connectivity, automated industrial vehicles are emerging and adding another layer of complexity for fleet managers. Autonomous forklifts from vendors such as Baylo, OTTO Motors, Teradyne, Seegrid, and SEER, as well as autonomous yard trucks from Fernride and Outrider are attracting significant investment as businesses begin to automate the heavy end of material handling operations. It’s easy to see how companies are “drowning in disconnected data.”
Aiming for "Unity" among Industrial Vehicle Fleets |
IMPACT |
The fragmented nature of industrial vehicle fleets operating in and around industrial sites presents unique challenges for adopting fleet intelligence platforms. Equipment is very often adopted at different times, fulfills different requirements, and is likely supplied by multiple different vendors.
Powerfleet is looking to resolve these challenges with its device-agnostic platform, Unity, delivering integration with any IoT device and third-party business system for a single pane view of operations. The platform has been developed as Powerfleet moves away from being a hardware-centric company to a mission-critical service provider in the IoT Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) space.
The development of fleet intelligence platforms that extend to industrial vehicle fleets, as well as on-road fleets, opens key opportunities for end users:
Opportunity for Established Telematics Vendors |
RECOMMENDATIONS |
Connecting more vehicles operating along the supply chain presents key opportunities for telematics vendors established in the road fleet space to develop and extend their fleet intelligence solutions. Companies like Powerfleet, Geotab, and Samsara are all well positioned to support this emerging need for all-encompassing platforms.
The technology is available for application, but vendors must address the challenges emerging with growing connectivity. Key considerations for success in this space include: