The future prospects and issues with Telematics in India

KOLKATA, India - July 19, 2013 - PRLog -- Implementation of telematics in Indian road transportation sectors to track the movement of vehicles, does not get good responses. It has been found that only 5% of truck operators have utilized telematics gadgets. Issues like added costs, accessibility of  low cost devices and the unorganized trucking sector are making hindrance for adopting the technology in a greater way.

In some segments like oil and gas, pharmaceuticals where high-value cargo movement regularly occurs, the utilization of telematics is widely acknowledged. It is due to telematic devices is largely required to hire vehicles for transmitting such cargoes in these sectors. The telematics system is also widely utilized in IT and retail sectors.

Now-a-days, a huge number of commercial vehicle owners utilize  GPS devices to track the position of the vehicles. GPS-based tracking is mainly the fundamental of telematics. There are also other gadgets which are applied to detect the speed of vehicles, average speed, mileage and other functions.

The usage of the Telematics system will be augmented if it is backed by original equipment manufacturers (truck makers), end customers as well as the Government agencies set them as standard application for truck operators.

In order to deliver pharmaceutical products, temperature recording machines are used in the refrigerated vehicles.

The leading transportation company, Transport Corporation of India, has applied tracking devices in almost 1,400-1,500 of its own trucks out of total 7000 trucks running in the market successfully.

Problems for the usages of Telematics system :-

The main issue in introducing telematics in India is that here customers show interest to get all kinds of telematics-based services but are not in a position to pay for such added service.

The charges of such apparatus vary based on the utilization of the product. In recent times logistics firms usually employ separate GPS devices, which are more cost effective.

Several commercial vehicle operators utilize standalone GPS devices, accessible for rupees 8,000-14,000. The tankers which transmit gas utilize GPS devices. It is in-built by the truck manufacturer. For this purpose, an extra cost of Rs 1,25,000 is required.

Cost of vehicle tracking devices in our country vary from Rs 5,500 (or less) for basic tracking units to Rs 25,000 (or more) for the superior high tech devices.

In the present scenario, several commercial vehicle operators are mostly reluctant to purchase trucks with the drivers cabin and cargo body from the OEMs  to cut their costs.

Now-a-days, 95 per cent of medium and heavy commercial vehicles are sold containing just the cowl and chassis not having the driver’s cabin and cargo body.

Smaller truck operators who are the owner of one or two vehicles, never apply telematics. They have a good faith on their drivers who are doing business with them for a long period

There is another serious issue with Telematics.  If the drivers can understand that their activities are being observed, they may disconnect the device.

Conclusion

The application of telematics devices is largely found in Buses for safety concerns. Less than two per cent of the commercial vehicle and bus fleet in India presently applies telematics solutions. For example, passenger transport undertakings in Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Mysore, prepared such devices on buses toward tender condition.

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Posted by
Rajib Dey
Content Writer
http://www.loadjunction.com (an online portal for truck rate analysis in India)