International Telematics Tendencies. Gurtam Partners View

We have talked a lot about telematics trends in Russia and CIS countries, in USA and Latin America. Now it is a high time we considered the telematics market of the rest of the world. The viewpoints of those players who actually work in the sphere are the most valuable as they are faced with all the difficulties and receive real profits from their activity. 

We have interviewed a large number of Gurtam partners from the Middle East, East and South Africa and Asia on the regional telematics trends, the most profitable business solutions and the challenges they come across in the course of their work. 

The Middle East and Africa

With many global commercial telematics vendors turning their back on the BRIC countries in the wake of disappointing experiences, such as quasi unsurmountable cultural and / or regulatory challenges in China and India and stalling or declining economic growth in Brazil and Russia, the Middle East and Africa (MEA) is coming into focus as an alternative for regional expansion. 

Despite very serious political instability and security issues, the MEA region has huge economic growth potential and very important natural and demographic resources. Economic growth in Africa has been hovering around 5% in the past years, with an economy just starting to show its true potential. The Middle East economy is still dominated by the oil and gas industry, but is diversifying quickly with new opportunities in real estate, construction, mining, and people and goods transportation, which is a key enabler to sustain growth. In this environment, the potential for commercial telematics is obvious. 

But let’s look at what Gurtam partners from MEA region think to be prospective in the market and which solutions are the most successful in their countries.

Steve Wangara, Pacetech, Kenya:

“The biggest challenge we have in Africa is vehicle theft and fuel siphoning  .

Vehicles theft cases are reported every day, and this is a challenge to vehicle owners thus they need to have their vehicles secured with tracking device which will enable you to recover your car once stolen. Stolen Vehicle Tracking Solution market is what we consider to be our prospective market as now many vehicle owners are accepting to fit security devices.”

Hamed Kazemi, Giti Gostar Rahbord, Iran:

“Vehicle tracking market is the most growing field. If we want to analyze vehicle tracking market we should say that taxis and trailers are in crown. There are many transportation companies and they are main potential customers of vehicle tracking service. Wialon is fully compatible with their needs and most advanced software in the market. Personal Tracking is very interested between customers and we are developing some Wialon-based application since most customers are not happy to use personal tracking hardware.

As tracking service is fresh in Iran, most customers use basic functions of this service but Eco Driving is in higher demand (most customers ask speed limitation based on road limits and unfortunately Iran map is not accurate in this case). In Iran fuel cost is very low in comparison with most countries so fuel monitoring has not been interested in past years.”

Israel

Koby Karat, Ananas Global, Israel:

“The competition in Israel is extremely tough. Like in Russia, there are leading well-known manufactures of GPS trackers and feet management software. In Israel they are also the service providers, no middle man between them and the final customers. For those manufactures the Israeli local market is a good field test. It means profit is not a must, the prices are relatively very low in relation to the world. 

In addition there is a monopole between the 3 big manufactures (=service providers) with the insurance companies. To get insurance for expensive cars or for trucks, the customers must install GPS protection system from those 3 big manufactures. Practically the car importers sell the cars with the GPS protection system already installed. Now there is a new trend – insurance discount for reasonable driver behavior. The trackers are sold in ridiculously low subsidized price.

In parallel there are service providers that offer cheap imported solutions from China. Regarding importing GPS Trackers in Israel, commercial import needs cellular communication license and Israeli QA Approval, even every device has CE European Approval. This means engagement time and additional cost.”

South Asia. Sri Lanka

In most Sri Lankan companies fleet is one of the top three asset values on a corporate balance sheet. Today, and more so in the future, a substantial amount of corporate capital will be tied up in these vehicle assets, which are crucial to maintaining (and expanding) a company’s core business. Hence, managers overseeing the fleet function need a strategic management focus to be successful and make an impact on the bottom-line. 

We turned to Sanjeeva Cooray, Kloudip Company, to ask what spheres of business he considers to be profitable in 2016.

Sanjeeva Cooray, Kloudip, Sri Lanka:

“Right now fuel tracking is on high demand and almost 50% of our customers have fuel sensors installed. Due to very high cost of fuel in the region this brings much higher return on investment. This can be highlighted as the no-1 feature. Also external still cameras coupled with door sensors and mobile in vehicle CCTV solutions are of high demand. Mobile apps and various options to get sales figures at each point or delivery status are gaining popularity with some customization to meet exact needs of individual customer. Value added solutions that operate on top of tracking like dispatch planning, cargo capacity planning, route tracking, etc. are becoming very useful in penetrating to market, retention and also to take over competitor customers.”

South Africa

The number of fleet management (FM) systems in active use in SA is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.8% from 0.9 million units in 2015 to 1.5 million by 2020. The market is in a growth phase that will continue for the next few years. A notable share of the installed fleet telematics systems on the South African market is represented by comparably low-end tracking systems such as light fleet management solutions including SVR systems extended with basic FM features. 

A competitive Environment: Of South Africa's corporate fleet of 1.3 million passenger cars, an estimated 100 000 vehicles are on a full management leasing arrangement. While this figure remains low in comparison to international standards, there is a growing market awareness of the need for fleet management products and services. 

Our partner Ernest Beukes, Itrackerx Company, shared his thoughts on markets trends and most profitable solutions.

Ernest Beukes, Itrackerx, South Africa:

“Our most profitable solutions on a short terms basis have been advanced solutions like Vehicle Video Surveillance and Fuel Level Sensors that address some of the major challenges in the African market. 

Furthermore, we also deliver our unique M2M EZ Roam solution to organizations exporting products and services across border. This M2M Roaming solution provides the client with a dramatically reduced and fixed roaming charge, with savings of up to 70% per vehicle. In effect, the client can now plan for device communication costs, whilst vehicles are more expansively monitored in foreign countries, as the M2M SIM roams on most networks, connecting to whichever provides the strongest signal.”  

As far as you see, the international telematics tendencies differ quite a lot. But due to its flexibility Wialon can be successfully applied in any world region. If you have our own viewpoint on how telematics market will develop in 2016 and which tracking solutions are going to succeed in the nearest future, share your thoughts through the comments to the article. Have a good day!