David Savage, Associate Vice President UK & Ireland at Geotab provides his thoughts on everything from the sustainability outlook for the year ahead to ongoing supply chain disruption and how government and public sector will be key to leading the electric vehicle charge.
With a new year already at the brink of its onset, pondering over the emerging trends could leverage the business in navigating towards the mainstream. Personalized connectivity solutions for EVs and emerging Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything use cases while managing the sustainability of the products are some of the aspects to look for in 2022. Based on the analysis by subject-matter experts, weighed predictions for the new connected car technologies, digital services, and ways to reap vehicle-related data, some of the future insights are shared as below.
Sustainability
According to David, sustainability will be at the heart of the business agenda in 2022 following the announcements made at COP26 in Glasgow. With transportation being the second most polluting industry for carbon emissions (behind construction) then all companies have a responsibility to look at how they run their fleets. "The only way fleets can reduce their carbon footprint is to manage their fleets and measure their outputs. And the only way they can do that is to adopt telematics technology. That should be their aim for 2022, whether that is running conventional Internal Combustion Engined (ICE) vehicles, or by switching to Electric Vehicles (EVs)”, explains David.
Electric vehicle adoption
2022 will be the year that electric vehicles start to make inroads into the mainstream. Sales of EVs have already overtaken conventional diesel engines and could be ready to overtake all forms of Internal Combustion Engined (ICE) vehicles in 2022 / 23 (
). With more electric truck models due to enter the market next year, this could be the tipping point for EV uptake. David points out,
"Geotab’s Electric Vehicle Suitability Assessment (EVSA) can provide the tool to assess whether fleets are ready and which vehicles are suitable for electrification. This can provide the incentive for companies to drive their sustainability policies forward and adopt a carbon-free future”.
Supply chain disruption
Last-mile delivery will become even more crucial in 2022 as the effects of the pandemic continue to ripple through society. Companies need to adopt fleets that can meet modern-day demands for online shopping and to react as (some) countries continue with national lockdowns.
“A shortage of delivery drivers will place a huge strain on fleet operators, who will need to ensure they adopt telematics solutions to ensure the maximum efficiency of their fleet”
, he shares.
Telematics in insurance
According to David,
"Data will be used to personalise more and more products in the insurance industry. For car usage, for example, telematics can provide a greater level of insight for insurance purposes. It can assess the habits of individual drivers, and look at their speed, acceleration, cornering, and braking characteristics to set the parameters of their insurance risk. We’ll see the widespread adoption of telematics to set new rules for the way car insurance operates in 2022”.
Cold Chain
Cold chain logistics will continue to grow in importance as we continue to drive down food wastage in the supply chain. Logistics managers will continue to monitor and assess the condition of perishable goods whilst in transit. They will need access to up-to-the-minute data to ensure all goods are being transported safely.
"This is especially important when it comes to the transportation of vaccines and pharmaceuticals. We’ll need to ensure optimum conditions to guarantee that medicines reach their destination in optimum condition and ready for use”.
Government and public sector
The government and public sector are taking the lead across Europe in electrifying their fleets and we’ll see more evidence of that going into 2022. But with aggressive targets to clean up our air and remove conventional carbon-producing vehicles from our roads, governments also need to be doing more to incentivise private sector fleets to make the switch to Electric Vehicles (EV).
"That includes maintaining or even increasing, state subsidies to buy and maintain EVs. We can’t wait until 2030 to reduce our reliance on the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE). We need to start making the switch to clean electric energy now”.
Conclusion
With technology evolving at a very fast pace, improved and advanced versions will have to be adopted under the guidance of experts. Being in the industry for over two decades, the expertise of Geotab could be enlightening for application and use.
About Geotab
Established in 2000,
advances security, connects commercial vehicles to the internet, and provides web-based analytics to help customers better manage their fleets. Geotab’s open platform and marketplace allow both small and large businesses to automate operations by integrating vehicle data with their other data assets.
