The automotive industry has witnessed a significant transformation with the integration of telecommunications and informatics ever since the advent of the Global Positioning System (GPS). Telematics has become an indispensable part of the transportation sector. Primarily being linked with infotainment systems in cars, telematics has come a long way and is now being implemented in monitoring a variety of vehicle parameters, which can be associated with a single vehicle to a huge fleet. In order to achieve the goal of efficient and safe freight transportation in the field of commercial vehicles, vehicle telematics is playing a major role in the form of the Internet of Things that Move (IoTtM).
This paper explores various ways in which vehicle telematics system can help in optimized usage of resources and increase fuel efficiency, enhance safety, improve communication and provide lucrative maintenance strategies. A thorough analysis of telematics system and its implementation techniques is the main goal of this study which can be achieved by employing a comprehensive assessment of different patents and research work.
Keywords: telematics, communication, logistics, safety, efficiency
Mobility is the driving force for the economic development of a nation. Exchange of resources by means of transportation forms the backbone of industries and businesses to achieve their desired progress rates and stay put in the competitive globalized world. As trade and commerce of a nation rely on transportation and technological advancements, different modes of transport like air, maritime, rail and road have to constantly evolve in order to maintain the balance between demand and supply and assure efficient utilization of all resources.
Statistical data for 2017 shows that road is the leading mode of freight transportation at the intra-EU level (51.5%) followed by maritime transport and rail transport accounting for 32.4% and 11.6% respectively (Eurostat Statistics Explained, 2019). The industry of commercial vehicles comprising of Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), drivers, fleet management companies, and consumers, is a dynamic ecosystem, where all these actors come together to facilitate the economic growth of a nation. With the development of new concepts in logistics, the commercial vehicles sector is experiencing immense pressure to accommodate new trends and simultaneously provide efficient safe freight transportation and other services. The automotive industry is the key source of emissions and a major consumer of fuel resources.
Manufacturers have to adhere to fuel emission standards set by policymakers so as to reduce hazardous environmental impacts and help in tackling climate change. OEMs and fleet management companies must focus on improving the fuel economy of vehicles for achieving cost-efficient business models. Ensuring safe mobility options is also a major concern for the automotive industry. Vehicle safety comprises of crash avoidance, immediate assistance in case of emergency, enabling technological measures to guarantee crash mitigation and implementing trained drivers for the fleet. But the industry faces a major challenge of providing affordable safety features for all vehicle categories. Safety is the foundation of the Decade of Action’s Global Plan for Road Safety 2011-2020 and the EU Road Safety Action Programme 2011-2020 (European Commission, 2016). The industry is carrying out extensive research so as to meet the demanding standards of emission control and safe mobility.
In recent years, the automotive field has witnessed revolutionary changes with the inception of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). A unique interdisciplinary package of communication, vehicle technology, and information transfer, ITS, is gradually transforming vehicles into computers on wheels. Vehicle telematics, the pillar of ITS, basically revolves around data transmission over large distances. With the concept of ‘smart city’ on the rise, the transport infrastructure needs to utilize data sharing techniques for better sustainability. Telematics which ensures the union of remote communication and information processing is a technology that will prosper with time and change the face of the trucking industry. Delving into the basics of telematics and examining various ways in which it can be applied in the automotive industry can certainly ensure higher business efficiency.
Since the 1990s, the triad of GPS, cell phone technology, and the Internet has altered the face of trucking. Telematics emerged as the means to link the automobile to satellite-based positioning technologies via wireless connectivity, enabling audio or visual data and securing a connection between drivers and the fleet management companies (Automotive Service Association, 2008). It is basically a technology that encompasses data processing and transmission over long distances by means of telecommunication devices and informatics. Similar to ITS in America and Japan, Europe has coined the term Advanced Transport Telematics Systems (ATTS), which is a total package of sensors, computers, and communication used for increasing safety, reducing congestion and increasing energy efficiency (Quddus, 2013).
According to Automotive Service Association (2008), three basic principles underlining telematics are:
Basic architecture
In order to accommodate the principles mentioned above, a typical telematics system consists of three basic parts:
The Telematics Control Unit (TCU) incorporated within the vehicle facilitates the connection between the Electronic Control Units (ECUs) of the automobile and the GPS satellites over wireless networks. To enable processing of the data acquired from the TCU, a Telematics Network Operations System (TNOS) works as the main operating unit and also checks for faults and performs configuration tasks. The interaction between TNOS and TCUs takes place via the Wireless Communication Infrastructure (WCI) (Hughes Systique Corporation, 2006).
The TCU acts as a mini-computer that interprets and dissipates information received via the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus which connects different ECUs present inside the vehicle(Grabianowski, 2009). With the help of On-Board Diagnostics Ⅱ (OBD-Ⅱ) acting as a network of ECUs and sensors connected to the data bus, data regarding fuel consumption, engine status and even driver behavior can be acquired (Cassias & Kun, 2007). For remote diagnosis, the OBD-Ⅱ monitors various vehicle parameters like powertrain, chassis, body and performs diagnosis of emissions. It has two types of codes to access ECU data-diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs) and parameter identifiers (PID). DTCs are used to diagnose malfunctions in various subsystems of the vehicle and PIDs are used to measure real time parameters (Malekian, Moloisane, Nair, Maharaj, & Chude-Okonkwo, 2017). The collected data is transmitted through a standard wireless communication network comprising of code division multiple access (CDMA) and global system for mobile communication (GSM) (Said et al., 2016).
With technological progress, the automotive industry must rely on sensor technology to facilitate better vehicle performance and enhance driving experience. Sensors are used for safety, diagnostics, convenience and environment monitoring (Abdelhamid, Hassanein & Takahara, 2014).
Distance sensors like the long-range sensors like radar and lidar (light detection) are used in the Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) technology implemented in trucks and cars for speed detection and for maintaining the distance between vehicles. The short-range sensors like camera sensors, ultrasonic sensors and capacitive proximity sensors are implemented in blind spot detection, lane-keeping assist and forward collision warning in order to provide increased safety for drivers. Speed sensors help in assisting drivers by making use of the Antilock Brake System (ABS) and Traction Control System (TCS) which prevent loss of control over the vehicle. Powertrain diagnostics sensors like position sensor for checking the level of fuels, temperature sensors and gas composition sensors for monitoring engine exhausts can alert the driver in case of breakdown. Tire pressure sensors and temperature sensors avoid tire blowout accidents (Abdelhamid et al., 2014).
Wireless Access for Vehicular Environment (WAVE) standard which is based on the IEEE 802.11p standard and the Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) are technologies that facilitate data transfer between vehicles and third parties like OEMs and fleet management companies (Abdelhamid et al., 2014).
This section will briefly discuss how the basics of telematics are applied in case of fleet management of commercial vehicles. Telematics plays and important role in facilitating easier tracking and diagnostics of different trucks traveling in a fleet. Fleet telematics implements GPS technology for real-time tracking of vehicle location, speed and movement. Sensors are used to monitor driver behavior and anomalies in the vehicle. With the help of engine diagnostics, the fleet management companies can implement predictive maintenance strategies to reduce downtime and increase truck productivity. The data collected is transmitted to secured servers with the help of V2I (vehicle to infrastructure) via the cellular network topology. This data is then accessed by the home base of the fleet management company with the help of a software and services are provided accordingly (Teletrac Navman, n.d.).
This can be illustrated with the help of a simple flow diagram consisting of all the components that form the basis of fleet management systems.
A strong functioning transportation sector is essential for the efficient working of different sectors of an economy. The current demanding environment emerging along with increasing globalization is exerting stress on factors like punctuality, reliability, flexibility and quality of transportation (Goel & Gruhn, 2006).
The commercial vehicle industry has to consider the above-mentioned factors along with the need to tackle climate change and ensure safe transportation. In order to create sustainable road transportation solutions, ITS consisting of vehicular communication can be implemented in energy saving and CO2 emission reduction (Tsugawa & Kato, 2010). Hitachi has developed a B2B (business to business) model for incorporating telematics information services for commercial vehicles. The fleet management application service provider (ASP) collects data and provides information regarding the location and speed of the vehicle, quality of driving and temperature of cargo which is an added advantage for drivers and OEMs in the industrial market. Hitachi’s fleet management system consists of telematics to gather information regarding speed, time and distance and sends this data to ASP with the help of a cellular transmission network. Driver behavior such as speeding or unnecessary idling, excessive acceleration and even drowsiness is detected with the help of a telematics network. The home base can send alerts to the driver which will ensure his safety and also keep the fuel emissions in check (Gommori, Nitta, Ito, Fushiki, Nakagawa, 2003).
Fuel consumption costs account to 28-38% of total vehicle carrier operating costs and hence there is a need for innovative fuel consumption monitoring techniques to improve feul economy. Implementing telematics along with driver intervention and training will help fleet management companies to achieve higher profits (Kwan & Boodlal, 2014).
Remote diagnostics by means of OBD-Ⅱ and telemetry uses wireless integrated network of sensors to monitor vehicle health. Telematics solutions can provide cost-effective maintenance strategies based on predictive maintenance where routine checkups are scheduled based on data acquired through remote diagnosis (Cassias & Kun, 2007). With the help of OBD GPS trackers, the fleet management company can track and check factors such as truck location, health and behavior of the driver, fuel consumption, emissions, etc. The OBD tracker works on the cellular wireless network technology. It draws power from the OBD port itself and contains a built-in antenna along with a GPS module in order to receive the GPS signal. A cellular OBD GPS tracker directly communicates with the cell tower in order to send the location and other vehicle performance data to the server over the cellular wireless network (Malekian et al., 2017).
Fleet management technology is based on Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication and makes use of technologies embedded in vehicles like telematics, GPS and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) (Wenzel, 2016). According to Schiller, Maier, and Büchle (2017), digitalization will bring about substantial change in fleet management and the truck market. IT and software solutions will closely integrate transporters into the systems of the Industry 4.0 value chain. As there will be a constant connection between the vehicles and the fleet management companies, routes will be dynamically optimized will result in better utilization of the capacity of different vehicles in the fleet. More than 90 performance indicators are brought into use by fleet operators for surveillance of their drivers, trucks and cargo. Telematics services can be divided into three categories:
Vehicle monitoring encompasses a variety of functions like real-time information on fuel consumption, preventive maintenance messaging, road map updates, service station finder and even stolen vehicle tracker. This will increase productivity by reducing stand by time, raising the lifetime period and less exertion and wear of the vehicle. In the case of driver and safety, different parameters like the vital status of the driver, live warnings of the wrong and dangerous style of driving, speed and reports of mishaps can be tracked which will, in turn, ensure less frequency of accidents and a better workplace atmosphere. Performance statistics of fleet operators, load monitoring, route optimization can be incorporated to increase better utilization of resources and integration in the supply chain (Schiller et al., 2017).
In order to make telematics more profitable for OEMs and fleet management companies, there is a need to develop telematics-based insurance services as an attractive business model. Insurance companies around the world are providing different solutions for example the AXA Insurance, Ireland’s leading auto insurer, has developed a discount program that compares speed-driven speed to speed limit by implementing a GPS telematics tracking device. Aioi Insurance in Japan has introduced a Pay-As-You-Drive program that utilizes Toyota’s GPS telematic G-book system (Yun, Choi, Kim & Kim, 2008).
In today’s fast-paced world powered by globalization and digitalization, the automotive industry is under pressure to provide better mobility solutions. The need for prioritizing safety and emission control has caused the commercial vehicle sector to incorporate digital solutions like vehicle electronics and communication technologies. In this regard, telematics is proving to be the present and the future for the logistics industry.
Interconnected telematics systems in trucks have optimized the commercial vehicle industry. They have increased driving efficiency via real-time communications and navigation with the help of GPS. Reduction in truck idle time and maintenance costs, improvement in driver safety and enhancement of vehicle performance has made telematics a necessity in the developmental process of commercial vehicle businesses. The benefits of using telematics are clear, and they are helping to shape the future of the trucking and logistics industry.
In the coming future, the industry will witness standardized usage of telematics and the technology is expected to become more finely tuned in order to gain maximum benefits for the growth of the automotive industry as well as the corporate sector revolving around information technology.
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