Leading the Way in Fleet Management

Berg Insight released the eighth installment of Fleet Management in the Americas, its annual strategic research report analyzing the latest developments in the commercial telematics market. According to the report, the number of fleet management systems units installed reached 10.9 million in Q4 of 2017, including vehicle-based systems that incorporate data logging, satellite positioning and data communications to a back-office application in its definition of “fleet management.”

With approximately 14.4 million gross vehicle weight (GVW) 3–8 commercials in use in North America, an additional 18 million lighter vehicles (GVW 1–2 and cars with no GVW), and 26.7 million commercial vehicles in Latin America, Berg Insight believes the Americas are in the midst of a growth period for fleet management. They partially attribute this growth to regulatory developments like the ELD mandate in the U.S. that are placing added data management pressure on fleets.

The study also states they expect the portion of non-privately owned commercial vehicles in the U.S. that have implemented fleet management technology to nearly double by 2022 (to 49.7% from 26.6% in 2017). In this rapidly growing space of fleet management, the report identified Verizon Connect as a frontrunner. “Verizon Connect is the clear leader in the fleet telematics space both from a global perspective and in the Americas specifically, and is setting the pace in delivering leading mobile technology platforms and solutions.”

Connectivity is the future of business

Our expansive resources in research and development as well as deep pool of customer intelligence in addition to a state-of-the-art mobile network is a response to our own sense of the great need for leadership and innovation to support businesses making the transition to digital business operations.

In particular, 5G is poised to fundamentally shift how American consumers and businesses connect to each other and to the world around them. According to a recent IHS Markit report, 5G will enable $12.3 trillion of global economic output in 2035, and the global 5G value chain will generate $3.5 trillion in output and support 22 million jobs.

International Data Corporation (IDC) supports these insights about a technology-driven shift, predicting that by the end of next year, business spending on digital transformation will reach $1.7 trillion worldwide, a 42% increase from 2017.

Consumers and businesses alike are investing in the connected vehicle. For example, Ford announced that by 2019, 100% of its U.S. vehicles would be built with connectivity and by 2020, 90% of its new global vehicles would be connected.

Specifically, telematics technology has enabled businesses to help improve the performance of mobile fleets—including monitoring vehicle information, tracking driver performance and analyzing route information— as well as mobile workforces— to control vehicle maintenance costs and facilitating greater employee and customer satisfaction.

Better data means better decision making

With the rise of the digital business comes the capability of businesses to make data-based decisions based on actual operational metrics. As consumers expectations for responsiveness and transparency rise, businesses are making moves to take the functions typically sitting in their home offices out to the field, such as invoicing and job status updates.

With advanced telematics systems, businesses are equipped to leverage technology for forward-facing visibility—helping them identify opportunities to improve driver behavior, anticipate breakdowns and manage maintenance schedules to improve vehicle uptime—in addition to providing the capability to look back at historical data. In fact, Salesforce’s Benchmarks for Small Business Growth reports top small business service teams will increase the use of predictive analytics by a whopping 139% over the next year.

This shift from reactive to proactive is what will help those businesses at the front of the pack to continue on best-in-class while those procrastinating on their own transformations to fall further and further behind. Businesses that use the data available to them in an actionable way open up a whole new world of possible success.

As the leading provider of fleet management technology, Verizon Connect is in a unique position to help businesses navigate and come out ahead in the digital transformation of business.