Capital Equipment News May 2017

TELEMATICS

Peter Le Roux, Telematics Specialist at Volvo Trucks South Africa, says currently 87% of all telematics offerings are provided via third-parties.

fleets comprising vehicles from different OEMs and often include on-road vehicles, in addition to off-road vehicles. While many OEMs are hard at work to develop their own telematics solutions for their offerings, both in construction equipment and commercial vehicles, all these systems are different and mostly incompatible with each other. Consequently, standardisation remains a key concern holding back the adoption of telematics, especially in the construction equipment sector. According to Gareth Owen, principal analyst at ABI Research, as construction fleets adopt telematics, fleet operators are increasingly demanding more standardisa- tion, easier interfacing and a single-source site for all OEM API data. Le Roux adds that mixed fleets (different OEMs) pose a challenge as fleet owners prefer having a standard telematics supplier. This explains the domination of third-party suppliers in the telematics space, which Le Roux says is now overtraded, with over 200 suppliers in South Africa. However, Owen notes that some progress has already been made to address these concerns in recent years, with OEMs such as Caterpillar, Komatsu, Volvo Construction Equipment and John Deere, to mention a few, working with aftermarket suppliers

commoditisation and decreased costs of telematics, both in terms of hardware and connectivity, could help lead to billions of dollars’ worth of new efficiencies in operations and capital management. “Several factors, including a downturned economy and glut of used equipment that has at times slowed the purchasing of new machines, have meant the industry has been slow to adopt telematics and the so-called industrial internet-of-things. But there are signs that will soon dramatically change,” says Trevor Mecham, vice president of construction and agriculture at Uptake. Mecham says the recent push from OEMs and AEMPs to standardise hardware and information throughout the industry, combined with the decreasing cost of telematics and connectivity equipment, signals that the industry is on the cusp of generating what could amount to billions of dollars’ worth of increased uptime, better equipment utilisations and optimised workflow processes and operations. “In short, telematics will generate a deluge of data that most companies in the industry won’t be prepared to analyse, much less take actionable insights on. Equipping millions of pieces of construction equipment with sensors is the easy part – utilising the data they’ll produce is the real

such as Navman Wirelless and industry bodies to develop standard APIs for some of the basic data such as vehicle identification, location and hours of use. “Some operators, such as rental fleet companies, are also calling for standardisation of more data advanced feeds such as geo-fencing, immobilisation, safety devices and alerts, and no doubt this will follow,” says Owen. Partnerships abound To respond to the concerns mentioned above, Raghavan says joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions among OEMs and aftermarket telematics vendors are likely to gain momentum. Already, several key joint ventures have been announced in this regard. Recently, Caterpillar announced that together with its long-term partner, Trimble, have devel- oped a brand-new agnostic fleet manage- ment and site productivity solutions plat- form designed for contractors with mixed equipment fleets. To further address concerns around data interpretation, Caterpillar recently announced its partnership with Uptake to transform the construction industry through data analytics. The two companies are of the view that

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