overcoming-the-challenges-in-the-transportation-industry-through-iot

Overcoming the Challenges in The Transportation Industry Through IoT

IoT In Transportation

Taking a look back to our ancient times, since the invention of wheel, the transportation has evolved through several stages. We have used wheels in enormous ways to move from one place to the other and also, the movement of the goods was made easier. Hence, trading took place in one of the most happening ways and is continuously growing with advanced technological features.

The world is becoming digital and so is every industry. The transportation sector is adopting innovative IoT concepts to make themselves better every day. However, there are many challenges and limitations, which the trucking industry still need to overcome to establish strong connectivity among the suppliers and consumers.

Different Challenges Across the Transportation Industry and How IoT Mitigates Them!

High Maintenance Cost

Transportation industry involves huge costs to maintain its vehicles as well as its infrastructure. It deals with numerous supplies and demands of the customers on a regular basis and thus, require an improved communication network. Since the last decade, there is a drastic change in the transportation industry. With the escalating oil prices, imbalance in the freight transport services, and the increase in supply and demand of the users, the costs have grown high globally.

In the US, trade growth is increasing day-by-day and is outpacing the availability of transportation services. This issue can be significantly mitigated with the help of IoT and its potential to predict the outcomes in different situations. The Internet of Things uses sensor devices that are installed on the vehicle to record its daily performance. This data is stored on a cloud-based platform that keeps the information secured for future analysis. The managers can pick the desired information and know the status of the vehicle’s condition and stay prepared in case of breakdowns.

Ageing Infrastructure

The transportation infrastructure is a framework which supports the transport services through different modes like roads, railways, ports, and airports. The major challenge with the transportation industry is its ageing infrastructure that hinders the growth of the industry. Crumbling roads, bad communication network, and vehicle conditions come under the old structuring in the transportation sector. Communication network plays a vital role in managing the transport operations, and poor connectivity among the entire system would cause road mishaps and life risks. Also, the ageing infrastructure causes delays and frequent breakdowns along with lost trust on the drivers.

To overcome these challenges, IoT provides multiple beneficial solutions for the transportation industry. With the help of IoT, it is now possible to easily connect the assets from real world to the virtual world. This connectivity helps simulate different real-life situations to plan valuable outcomes. The IoT solutions constantly monitor different health parameters of the vehicles (infrastructure) and help identify potential fault areas in advance. This enables the managers to take corrective measures before vehicle failure, thereby increasing safety, reduced disruptions, and increased service uptime.

Environmental Concerns

The changes in the Earth's environment are the most crucial aspects that require improved measures and a more environment-friendly transport sector. In the US, there is a multitude of vehicles running on roads, air, and water to deliver services, which emit harmful gases than any other sector. Many industries are adopting smart IoT methods to reduce greenhouse gas emission for a safer environment. Due to traffic congestion and road jams, it is an unfortunate sight to see carbon emissions causing harm to our environment.

Sensor-based vehicles provide data collection for different situations and this data is collected to predict the vehicle's health and conditions. This in return causes a positive impact on the fuel consumption habits of the vehicles. Additionally, electric vehicle usage is one of the initiatives taken by the transportation industry to significantly reduce the carbon footprint. Apart from this, IoT-powered GPS fleet tracking solutions help provide the drivers with live road status where they can optimize their routes, avoiding traffic jams that would help reduce the air pollution due to vehicle’s idleness.

Serving the Dynamicity of Population

Urbanization is creating demands all over the world. These demands can only be fulfilled with the help of transportation facilities, and thus becomes a major drawback to cater to on-time services. Also, the stats depict that the US population grows with an average of 1% annually, resulting in increased usage of the highways. The population growth is seen more in the urban areas than the rural areas, which creates clusters of metro regions called 'megaregions'. These megaregions are the drivers of the economy but face the worst traffic congestion.

However, the transportation sector plans to minimize these congestions to a significant level by adopting technological methods like GPS tracking systems, IoT-based route management, smart vehicle maintenance, and much more. These are sensor-enabled systems through which the drivers get the information about the routes and the destination status. With the help of IoT-powered solutions the drivers can predict the possibilities of taking the shortest routes for faster deliveries. Also, the Internet of Things allows vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity that helps avoid accidents.

Saving the Fuel

Past many decades, the petroleum prices have significantly levelled up and have provided uncertainties in the fleet transit operations. Varying fuel costs is yet another challenge for the transportation industry as higher fuel costs mean, higher prices passed to the customers. The price volatility in the fuel costs causes a rapid effect on the budget and performance of transportation management. The managers find it difficult to save profits.

Thus, implementing the Internet of Things help provide proper planning and management of the vehicles through prediction-based outcomes. Implementing an IoT-based system with your transportation sector helps manage your vehicle’s fuel consumption economically. IoT serves with efficient route optimizing techniques for the drivers that significantly saves your business and money. Also, the installed sensors promptly notify the vehicle’s speed, improving the safety of the driver as well as the vehicle while saving the fuel.

All these challenges faced by the global trucking industry can be easily mitigated with the help of IoT. The Internet of Things is powered with sensor devices to collect valuable data for analysis. This data is further stored on a cloud-based platform for future uses or research purposes. The professionals then take the desired data to predict different possibilities for different situations and facilitate consumers with great ideas and measures.

Also, urban productivity highly depends on the efficiency and growth of the transportation system to render different services to the consumers, moving labors, and organizing freight processes between multiple origins and destinations. With the possibility of self-driving vehicles coming forward in the market, different services of the transportation system are met wisely. Prioritizing driver safety, the Internet of Things is working wonders for the transportation sector and is overcoming the challenges for a better future.