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In ths listings section of this Telematics and Mobile Data Guide web site, you’ll find well over a hundred suppliers of remote vehicle and asset tracking systems listed in it. This is a large number; and we’d be the first to admit that the figure is by no means definitive.
The large size of this supplier community is a resounding testament to the rapid rise of interest in tracking and location systems. When a market opportunity arises, there will always be someone to fill it.
The downside of such a lively market is that it can be difficult choose from among so many potential contenders, or distinguish the major players from the emerging aspirants. So if you’re one of the many businesses still contemplating the use of some kind of tracking and telematics system, you may feel intimidated by the sheer extent of the market.
This guide is designed to help you – especially where the suppliers have taken up the opportunity to tell you something extra about their services. Even where they have not done so, at least the guide gives you a starting point for your research.
You might wonder, though, whether even a growing market can sustain such a lot of players over the long term, especially given that their systems are not necessarily compatible with one another. Many of these companies have only appeared in the last two or three years, or have only expanded into tracking and location during that period, and you’re bound to wonder whether they will all still be significant players in two or three years’ time.
We can’t answer that question in specific terms, but we would agree that there must be some kind of shake-out over the next few years. To some extent this may be influenced by whatever technology is adopted for the Government’s proposed telematics-based lorry road-user charging scheme (more on page xx). If this emerges as a de facto standard, suppliers that can’t or won’t conform to it may fall by the wayside.
On the other hand, by that time the market may have found its own level. And in any case, it may be that the legally-required system which emerges is too narrow in scope to meet the diverse needs of all transport and field service operators.
What’s clear is that vehicle and asset tracking is very much a rising market, even amidst the uncertainties that surround it; and the range of choices has never been greater.
When it comes to mobile data and field service automation, if anything the market is even broader. Unhampered by threatened legislation and conflicting standards, these systems are going from strength to strength. Almost any business activity outside the confines of the company base can now be streamlined by the introduction of portable computing and real-time communications with corporate data systems.
From being a novelty, the handheld terminal has quickly become part of the basic armoury of the meter-reader, the delivery man, the sales representative, the roving engineer. Growth has been underpinned by rapid advances in the power of mobile devices, the flexibility of "forms-based" applications and the increasingly seamless nature of the integration services that connect them with back-office systems.
Meanwhile, the past year has seen the emergence of the smart mobile phone as a genuine alternative to other forms of mobile computer for serious computing and data management work in the field. This at least offers the prospect of a reduction in the number of portable devices needed to make a reality of mobile management.
Mobile phones have also come into their own for tracking and location, as discussed at greater length in another article in our Resources section. You can now track people or assets using no equipment other than the phones they carry already. But fees for location "fixes" can mount up if you want regular updates, so you need to compare long-term costs for this with those incurred by increasingly affordable GPS-based tracking.
Another emerging technology for mobile communications is public wireless hotspots. Currently hotspots are limited to local areas such as airport lounges, hotels and cafés, and are offered by a plethora of different suppliers, but there is talk of networks covering whole districts or even towns eventually.
As the market matures and consolidates, and single-point billing by multiple suppliers becomes more common, Wi-Fi networks could take over many of the mobile communication functions now handled by smartphones and GPRS data networks.
In the future we expect to add a section in our Guide on Wi-Fi and related technologies. Meanwhile, you can read about the progress of Wi-Fi hotspots in every issue of m.logistics.
