Commercial Telematics in Asia Burgeoning in Response to Economic Development and Government Mandates

Commercial telematics is gaining traction in Asia, specifically in China and India. Fueling this growth is cargo theft, economic development, increased awareness, infrastructure readiness, road fatalities, and government policies that mandate the installation of track and trace devices onto commercial vehicles. ABI Research estimates that commercial telematics in Asia will grow with a CAGR of 19% to $8.5 billion in 2021. Local delivery fleets lead the market, followed by public and private transportation.

“Asia’s rise of commercial telematics directly coincides with the region’s economic development and surging demands for logistics services that will ensure timely deliveries and customer satisfaction,” says Raquel Artes, Industry Analyst at ABI Research. “Vendors’ investments in commercial telematics will ultimately lead to better routing and streamlined dispatching to help businesses to deliver goods on time.”

Considering land transportation makes shipments much more vulnerable to cargo theft, commercial telematics appropriately allows companies to remotely monitor in-transit shipments, as well as receive real-time alerts concerning whether or not the shipments reached their final destinations in a timely manner, were stolen, or experienced any counterfeit attack. Economic development will further enhance the rapid motorization of this technology in Asia.

“By leveraging commercial telematics solutions, local governments can combat road fatalities in Asia,” concludes Artes. “The systems can track driver performance, identify unsafe driving practices, and then provide the driver with real-time or periodic feedback and customized driver training. This would help boost driver’s compliance to safe driving regulations and eventually mitigate vehicle-to-vehicle collision and protect pedestrians from being hit by vehicles on the road.”

ABI Research forecasts the number of commercial telematics subscribers will reach more than 7.5 million in China and 1.4 million in India by 2021. The Chinese market landscape remains fragmented with a mix of many local telematics service providers and vendors, including Dynafleet, Ford Sync, Shanghai OnStar, and Scania Fleet Management. Key players in India include Tata FleetMan, iTrack, Axestrack, Arya Omnitalk, and EFKON India. Worldwide, ABI Research expects the number of commercial telematics subscribers, excluding trailer tracking, will near 75 million by 2021 with a CAGR of 17%.

“Globally, truck and car manufacturers understand the perks of commercial telematics, with vendors like FleetBoard (Daimler), Ford, General Motors, Iveco, Scania, and Tata Motor installing telematics into their vehicles and offering fleet management solutions like emergency call, remote diagnostics, and vehicle tracking,” concludes Artes. “New cellular network technologies will soon further reduce connectivity costs and contribute to adoption spikes with vehicle tracking solutions migrating either to EC-GSM or the more network-efficient LPWA LTE technologies in LTE Category 1, LTE Category M1 and LTE Category M2."

These findings are from ABI Research’s Commercial Telematics in Asia report.