Globally 73.1 million trucks are expected to be connected by 2025 and penetration of telematics is set to rise. These macro factors coupled with trends such as rising sales due to economic development, stricter regulations, and more importantly advent of autonomous trucking have driven the interest of non-traditional telematics players toward truck telematics. Currently, Non- traditional telematics providers such as Truck OEMs, Aggregate manufacturers, Telcos, Map providers, and Tire manufacturers make up the eco system along with Traditional Telematics providers. As of 2017, Non-traditional telematics providers make up for 42.6% out of a total installed base of 12.9 million units in Europe and North America. Truck OEMs initially paved the way for truck telematics starting as early as 1995, via their in-house solutions. Later, they were emulated by other Non-traditional players, who forayed into truck telematics via partnerships and acquisitions.
With the emergence of ‘value trucks’ and their demand amongst fleet owners, telematics has become a key differentiator amongst Truck OEMs. Telematics is also helping OEMs to strengthen their customer association to their brand – converting one-time sales into continual service centred relationships. OEMs currently cater to 10.9% of the total installed base and is expected to increase with the prospect of V2V communication and autonomy, as this necessitates OEMs to be the fore-runners with their connectivity solutions.
In the wake of autonomy and V2V connectivity, truck aggregate manufacturers have evolved from only being Tier-1 suppliers to technology innovation partners. They are changing their business approach to focus on innovation, rather than production. Component behaviour analysis and opportunity to tap new segments are the key factors driving aggregate manufacturers to enter the connected truck space. Their strength is in coupling basic fleet management solutions such as GPS tracking, routing, maintenance scheduling and so on with advanced solutions such as prognostics and OTA programming.
High speed data services lay the platform for Telcos to offer telematics. Telcos have evolved from being a powerful service provider to application and services switchboard. This puts them in the driver’s seat to manage the more app-based open platform telematics ecosystem. They see real value addition in offering data analytics and intelligence, rather than only selling raw vehicle data. Majority of the top network providers initially forayed into fleet telematics by starting of with their in-house solutions, and then expanded their portfolio and regional presence via acquisition of prominent telematics service providers.
Navigation providers form the bedrock of fleet telematics solutions. Strategic acquisitions and partnerships have transformed them from being a stand alone mapping company to a full-fledged fleet telematics service provider. They can use their core competencies as a leverage to provide advanced GPS based solutions and map based ADAS for platooning and autonomous trucking.
Riding the IoT wave, leading tire manufacturers are moving on from providing tire as a product to “Tire-as-a-Service” model. As 25% of the fuel in a truck is consumed in overcoming rolling resistance of tires, gathering data on parameters such as tread depth and inflation pressure will assist tire manufacturers in designing low rolling. Moreover, fleet managers prioritize uptime and scheduled servicing over ad hoc replacement. This requires tire manufacturers to provide tire related value added solutions such as remote diagnostics, prognostics, road-side assistance, and maintenance scheduling.
With the European and American connected truck market highly fragmented with 400-500 participants, the future beckons other prominent non-traditional players such as IT providers, chip manufacturers, truck leasing companies and logistics companies to foray into truck telematics via mergers and acquisitions and subsequently increase the share of Non traditional telematics players.
Key Issues Addressed
- What are the trends that are driving Non Traditional telematics providers into entering the connected truck telematics ecosystem?
- What are the strategies currently devised by Non Traditional telematics providers for entering the commercial vehicle telematics ecosystem?
- What are the telematics solutions that each of the Non Traditional telematics providers have in their portfolio?
- What are the strategic imperatives for connected truck vendors as a whole community?
- What are the opportunities available for future Non Traditional Telematics providers in 2018?
Table of Contents
Companies Mentioned (Partial List)
A selection of companies mentioned in this report includes, but is not limited to:
- Daimler Trucks
- Openmatics
- Telcos
- Verison Connect
- TomTom Telematics
