When IDC released its spending of the top industries spending heavily in adapting IoT-based solutions business processes, transportation comes second. The overall spending on IoT by transportation industry is $78 billion in 2016. While out of this $78 billion investment a majority ($55.9 billion to be exact) goes into freight monitoring. This means that even though a completely autonomous vehicle transportation is not lurking behind the door in 2017, the chances are, transporters will be looking forward to strengthening their transport software capabilities by including IoT-based features and inputs in it. Thus the transportation industry seems to be more interested in ramping up its functions first from the software level with minimum help from IoT devices such as sensors and iBeacon. This makes sense as it gives them an invasive strategy which is keeping high-end investments at the far end of the process by which the system would be able to get matured enough to understand the insights generated by IoT devices. So rather than fancy devices and cool gadgets, transportation industry will be looking forward to seeing more connected transport software which is capable of serving more promptly and efficiently.  

The overall spending on IoT by transportation industry is $78 billion in 2016.
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Therefore, we are not diving directly into the sophisticated autonomous fleets by Otto which is taking the industry by storm. In an unorganized sector such as transportation, a feasible solution sells faster than an impressive one. Modifying the transportation from transport software level first and then taking it up to the hardware level will be a much faster than the other way round. To see that transport software adaptation will be faster and better for the industry than the IoT hardware solution is also based on the most popular usages of IoT-based solutions. Each of these aspects mentions the key changes induced by the Iot-based solutions in the system which is worth a second look.    

Transport software are sensing smart

So far, transport software has employed sensors including RFIDs for tracking purposes. Even barcode system is majorly based on tracking the right shipment. Taking the next step, transport software has now started using sensors to track as well as monitor the shipments. Plus, there is only a limited amount of information which can be stored in the barcodes. This noneditable often fails to deliver the exact statistics through which the shipment has passed till destination which creates ambiguity in security and improvisation of the process. Temperature and pressure sensors used in transit carriers are making the task of monitoring much easier for the dispatch centers as they can smartly judge the exact condition of each shipment before and after shipping. This also helps in ensuring that the shipments are handled carefully and results in a better condition of the shipped products.   

While freight loss or damage is one of the major leakages responsible for the transportation industry revenue loss, sensors and real-time status update trackers are a coming up as a reliable solution. In transportation industry where safety equals success rate, transport software sensing smartly is a welcome trend.

The Green Revolution in transport software

Though it should not be stated as a new trend, it is worth mention now as the efforts have started culminating into reality now. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Environment Protection Agencies have started pushing few mandates since as early as 2015. These regulations which are basically striving for a balanced fuel economy to minimize the environmental damage by the industry needs to be implemented by 2018. With efficient routing systems, platooning practices and automated driving based carriers have proven credible in reducing the overall emission from the trip, a widespread acceptance of these practices is yet to be seen. We are hoping that the wheels will be moving to a greener side from 2017 onwards.     

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Environment Protection Agencies have started…
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Security first for transport software

With predictive analysis and diagnostic alerts, sensors are also progressing into making transport software safer. From an operational point of view, any breakdown could have been detected by transport software earlier only after it happens, which is generally in the scenarios where the carrier is on the trip. As a preventive measure, maintenance and scheduling software are utilized to ensure least chances of breakdown on trips. But even this is not an optimum solution. The parts of carriers which are inaccessible for the supervisors or maintenance engineers are often the ones which give the transport software biggest surprises with sudden breakdowns. Diagnostic alerts and sensor monitoring on these parts are efficient enough to alert the maintenance staff beforehand about the likelihood of a breakdown in specific parts. It also feeds the transport software with a more practical timeline about the lifecycle of the different parts of the machinery. This also helps in cost optimization for spare parts by reducing the instances where the parts are replaced too early from their retiring age or later than the safe threshold for these parts.     

We are looking forward to an autonomous future

Otto, a self-driving truck manufacturer made news twice in the last year. The first one was a successful delivery of 5000 beer bottle made possible by a fleet of Otto trucks which is completely autonomous. The other one was when Uber bought Otto confirming the industry-wide enthusiasm towards autonomous trucking technology. In fact, as predicted by Cerasis, the autonomous trucking or self-driving trucks will be a commonly available and running the show by 2020. If such a drastic change in the transportation practice is knocking at the door at merely 3 years in the future, why not start preparing your transport software solutions now?  

s predicted by Crisis, the autonomous trucking or self-driving trucks will be a commonly available…
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About DreamOrbit:

DreamOrbit is a Logistics and Supply Chain Technology Development company. We have been creating meaningful and reliable software products for the industry which is “Always on the go” for the past half decade. We are highly motivated team aimed at innovation. Our philosophy is to “keep challenging the potential within”.  With the support of our happy customers and dedicated team, we strive to provide best possible solutions to industry problems. Visit our website to know more about DreamOrbit.

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