Deepak Kadambi General Manager, South East Asia
According to Statista, in 2020, the ride-hailing market in Southeast Asia, which included online transport and food delivery, amounted to approximately 11 billion U.S. dollars. This was forecasted to increase by 2025, in which the ride-hailing market was expected to reach 42 billion U.S. dollars across Southeast Asia. It is clear that there is a growing trend of transportation-based services, such as ride-hailing, food delivery and eCommerce among others.
Along with a growing ride-hailing market, Asia is home to five of the world’s 10 most-congested cities, and those countries are actively looking for more sustainable methods to move people and goods. The transportation industry is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions due to infrastructure inefficiencies and its dependence on fossil fuels. As such, there is an urgent need to implement more sustainable mobility methods to help minimise congestion and in turn, reduce carbon emissions to help combat the increasingly adverse impacts of climate change.
Leveraging technology, businesses now have the opportunity to harness the power of data to determine more efficient and environmentally friendly ways to move people, goods, and services. This is where global IoT and connected transportation technology leader, Geotab, is stepping up to offer solutions and tools for more efficient and sustainable transportation management all over the world, now including Southeast Asia.
How telematics can help pave ways for a more sustainable future
Geotab structures its value proposition around six key pillars, including
- Productivity
- Fleet Optimisation
- Safety
- Compliance
- Expandability, and
- Sustainability.
“While each pillar is relevant to the needs of our customers, in Asia we have noticed that the key focus areas are Productivity, which includes factors like trip miles, accurate arrival, and departure times; Fleet Optimisation, which includes vehicle speed, fuel and so on; Expandability, which takes into account hardware add-ons like cameras and asset trackers, among other things; and Safety, including vehicle and driver safety and remote vehicle immobilisation, and more recently, sustainability, which involves fuel management, route optimisation and electrifying fleets, ” shared Deepak Kadambi, General Manager for Asia Pacific region at Geotab.
Also read: Finnoventure Fund 1: Helping the Thai startup ecosystem thrive through innovation
By offering enhanced insights into fuel usage and fuel-wasting driver behaviour like idling, telematics data can help the transportation industry adopt more sustainable driving practices. Beyond that, telematics data can also support electric vehicle (EV) adoption.
“Geotab intends to support EV adoption to help reduce and eliminate carbon emissions, improve air quality and help businesses achieve their sustainability goals. Over the past few years, Geotab has introduced a variety of tools and resources to further those objectives including Green Fleet Dashboard, EV Battery Degradation tool, and the Temperature Tool for EV Range,” added Kadambi.
Geotab’s solutions will help the region’s mobility industry step into a more resilient future
With over 2.5 million connected vehicles, Geotab provides advanced data insights and fleet management solutions to organisations all over the world, including thousands of logistics companies. By implementing Geotab technology, many organisations have optimised their operations and benefit from enhanced insights into vehicle data.
By monitoring vehicles and driver behaviour, companies can unlock a wealth of metrics and performance data that can positively impact every part of the business. For instance, data can help inform maintenance plans for machinery and vehicles to help keep equipment running for longer while also optimising performance.
Geotab’s unique open platform and ability to seamlessly integrate with other systems help to provide Geotab customers with unfiltered access to their data. In addition, with access to the Geotab Marketplace, a network of over 250 third-party partners that provide hardware Add-Ons and software Add-Ins that seamlessly integrate with Geotab’s open platform, customers can choose from a variety of integrated solutions from its world-class Partners to help customise their solution.
Leveraging data for efficient and effective fleet and fuel management in Southeast Asia
Geotab’s connected vehicle technology has the potential to be a game-changer in the transport sector in Southeast Asia. Utilising Geotab solutions, businesses can gain access to valuable vehicle data that can help them make better-informed decisions, allowing them to operate their fleets in a more energy-efficient and effective way.
According to reports, while fuel consumption of individual Southeast Asian countries is small compared to that of China or India, it is significant if considered for Southeast Asia as a whole, and motorisation levels in Southeast Asia will continue to be larger than that of India and China for the next two decades. Moreover, fuel consumption by transport is expected to increase by more than 5% per year until 2030 because of rapid urbanisation and economic growth resulting in greater demand for mobility. Utilising Geotab, vehicle data can provide enhanced insights into a fleet’s fuel consumption. Armed with this information, businesses can identify which drivers or which driving practices are wasting fuel and implement different strategies to help improve fuel efficiency. To offer another example, vehicle data can also be used to determine optimal routes. Taking into account external factors including traffic, weather and more, drivers can gain access to information that allows them to choose the most efficient route, saving time and maximising fuel usage.
Also read: Bots vs Bodies: can insurers strike a balance between human services and tech?
Beyond improving the efficiency of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, vehicle data can also be used to help fleets transition to electric vehicles, and this is extremely relevant for Southeast Asian countries where according to reports, vehicle sales are set to outpace all other regions in the world. It is estimated that vehicle ownership across the region is expected to grow more than 40 per cent by 2040. Subsequently, there is an urgent spike in air pollution, traffic congestion and worsening health and lifestyle.
With tools powered by real-world EV performance data, like the EV Suitability Assessment tool, companies can gain an understanding of which vehicles in a fleet are best suited for EV replacement. The tool takes into consideration EV availability, EV performance and financials related to procuring the recommended EVs. By making the switch, fleets can more easily meet CO2 emission reduction goals.
More data-based solutions for a better tomorrow
Additionally, mobility data can also be leveraged to perform economic modelling in a post-COVID-19 world that focuses on specific sectors such as city congestion, airport traffic, port traffic, commercial vehicle traffic and border wait times to help assess where inefficiencies are present and how to rectify them. In addition, data enables fleet benchmarking, a trusted strategy for evaluating and improving operations based on driving patterns.
Fleet benchmarking helps fleets better understand their performance by comparing their vehicle data against comparable fleets. To help support this, Geotab has built a unique machine learning model that allows us to benchmark vehicles using a “digital twin” model across different dimensions such as fuel economy, safety and utilisation.
Also read: Wealthech startup Kristal AI looks to democratise private banking
Kadambi continued, “As we continue to deepen our knowledge and understanding of the market, Geotab will continue to modify and customise our telematics solution to help meet the unique needs of the region and overcome current challenges. Every challenge is an opportunity for innovation. Whether that is providing solutions for two and three-wheel vehicles, or helping integrate the gig economy into traditional logistics, Geotab is focused on helping optimise transportation in Southeast Asia.”
Learn more about Geotab and their connected transport tech solutions at https://www.geotab.com/sea/
– –
This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Geotab
We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.
The post How this global IoT and connected transportation leader will transform APAC appeared first on e27.