The New Generation of Fleets: From Scooters to Trucks –
One Solution

The Transportation Market is Evolving

Today’s vehicle market looks nothing like it did twenty or even ten years ago. Besides traditional fuel operated motor vehicles and trucks that used to make up commercial fleets, the word “fleet” now encompasses a variety of vehicle types – electric cars that are increasingly used by fleets in addition to fuel operated vehicles, micro mobility vehicles such as scooters, electric bikes etc., used for last mile deliveries, and shared vehicles of all types, often used on an on-demand basis.

Companies that traditionally had to deal with homogenous fleets now have to deal with a variety of vehicle types and needs and fleet managers must be able to adapt to this evolving world, with systems that can still provide efficient and effective fleet tracking tools – for all vehicle types and uses.

A Fleet for Every Industry

Fleets serve a variety of industries, and they may take on different characteristics for each type of industry they serve. Following are some of the industries served by fleets:

Construction - In the construction industry, fleets are mixed, consisting of extremely expensive vehicles and equipment, that serve as profit-making assets, and yet they pose extreme safety risks for drivers and operators. Managing the large variety of expensive vehicles while ensuring the safety of drivers and crew is a major challenge.

Government / Municipalities - Municipalities, and government offices all have large fleets consisting of a wide range of trucks and vehicles. Security is a major issue, compliance with environmental regulation is mandatory and budgets are usually limited. The challenge is finding an effective fleet management system that can handle the wide range of vehicles, help comply with regulation, safeguard drivers and be cost effective.

Transportation - The transportation industry includes public transportation, and private transportation companies, both of which operate busses and vans as well as ride hailing services such as UBER – the challenge is finding an efficient and safe fleet management system to ensure the safety of both drivers and passengers.

Pharmaceuticals / Food & Beverage - Both businesses require maximum visibility and efficiency in their distribution chain. Monitoring in-vehicle storage temperature of pharma as well as food and beverage products and their transportation in a safe and timely manner is critical.

And there are many additional industries that are served by fleets.

Top Challenges Fleet Managers Face

While fleets vary in size and complexity, all require efficient fleet management to safely transport passengers or goods while keeping drivers safe and alert, costs down, and maintaining compliance with regulatory directives. Following are some of the most important challenges fleet managers and owners have to deal with, whichever industry they serve:

1

A variety of needs in one fleet
Fleets often include different types of vehicles – trucks that have different requirements – from trucks that transport goods such as food and beverages or pharmaceutical products where temperature monitoring is essential, commercial electric vehicles, passenger transportation vehicles, micro mobility vehicles and passenger cars. Many fleets also provide last mile deliveries, which are an entirely different type of operation, with distinctive needs.

2

Theft
According to the FBI, in 2019 over 720,000 vehicles were stolen in the US and in 2020 - 873,080. The average dollar loss per stolen vehicle was $8,886. With commercial fleets the losses go beyond the actual cost of replacing a vehicle if it is not located, with the added costs of vehicle down time until the stolen vehicle is located or replaced, delayed deliveries, brand reputation and stolen goods. Goods are vulnerable along critical points in the supply chain and particularly in “the last mile” so ensuring safe delivery is also a major challenge.

3

Vehicle maintenance and fuel costs
Vehicle maintenance costs are growing due to more onboard vehicle technologies, technician shortages, and a growth in vehicle utilization due to longer service lives. The prices of regular gasoline and diesel fuel are also increasing. With the economy now starting to recover following the Covid-19 pandemic, demand for fuel is growing and prices are rising accordingly. Increasingly popular electric vehicles incur battery replacement and charging costs.

4

Promoting driver safety
Safer drivers are better drivers, who avoid accidents that are costly in terms of human lives as well in financial terms – fewer driver / vehicle down times and delayed deliveries etc. In addition, safer drivers also lead to lower user-based insurance (UBI) costs.

5

Multiple suppliers for different systems
This is one of the biggest frustrations of any fleet manager – having to deal with a number of suppliers for each component in their fleet management operation – one for scheduling, one for safety management, a third for controlled temperature transportation and so forth. Having to integrate between all systems is a true headache.

6

Scalability
Organizations change and progress. Sometimes they expand their operations, make organizational changes or enter a completely new area of business. Global events such as the Covid-19 outbreak also have implications on the ways fleets are run. Having to adapt the existing fleet management system to change or to a new line of business could be a problem. Fleet managers would like to know they can rely on their FMS to expand and change without having to deal with additional suppliers and the hassle of integrating new systems

Ituran’s FMS solution – a comprehensive modular solution for any fleet requirement

Ituran’s comprehensive FMS solution is a versatile telematics-based system, which supports fleet management, vehicle diagnostics, driver and passenger safety and many other connected car software applications.

Ituran’s FMS solution is the ultimate answer to all current and future fleet management needs as it is constantly evolving and adapting to new developments and technologies in the worlds of fleets and vehicles.

The system’s Safety component detects a long list of driving maneuvers including: careless driving,

lane-changing and hard-breaking, and comes with a black box component that records and restores data. Alerts are transmitted to the server whenever an abnormal maneuver is detected; and accidents are logged before and after the event, providing optimal data for post-accident analysis.

Ituran’s StarLink Tracker, the system’s main device, is compatible and communicates with most vehicle types including electric and micro mobility vehicles, communicates with mobile assets such as trailers and complies with worldwide automotive and safety standards.

Here’s why Ituran’s FMS solution is the optimal fleet management solution choice:

Comprehensive fleet management solution – an all-in-one solution that supports most vehicle types including electric and micro mobility vehicles, and provides solutions for stolen vehicle recovery, UBI (User Based Insurance) monitoring driver behavior, securing the last mile, vehicle diagnostics and health and much more.

Simple to operate – simple and easy to operate system, always available via website, app or API.

Ituran (NASDAQ: ITRN) – a long-standing (over 26 years) leading international telematics company, services nearly 2 million subscribers in over 22 countries. The Ituran brand is synonymous with vehicle recovery, fleet management and connectivity. In addition, all Ituran’s products are developed and manufactured in-house.

Versatile and scalable – supports many optional Ituran add-ons: driver identification, vehicle diagnostics, temperature monitoring, mobile asset and cargo tracking, UBI, driver behavior monitoring and more. In addition, Ituran’s systems have a proven ability to seamlessly integrate with third party devices and systems such as dashcams, DMS systems and are able to draw and process data produced by such third-party systems. And our systems are constantly upgraded and updated to adapt to changes in the transportation world specifically as well as to global trends.

Single supplier – work with a single supplier for all your fleet management needs – today, and in the future when your needs change.

Support – wherever you are, Ituran provides professional and technical support, so you don’t have to worry about faults and downtimes.

Ituran provides technology-based integrated fleet tracking to suit the needs of any size or type of fleet. Contact us now to start protecting your drivers’ safety, improve control and monitoring of your fleet and reduce fleet maintenance costs!

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