Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Jun 07, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Jun 07, 2005 |
|
|
|
|
|
Logistics
-
Roadways Industry & Economy - Petroleum Oil companies plan to launch truck tracking systems Amit Mitra
Mumbai , June 6 SIGNIFICANT business opportunities await cellular service providers and manufacturers of e-logistics devices for vehicle tracking from the public sector oil companies in India. As increased quantities of petroleum products are being moved across the length and breadth of the country in tankers, oil companies are planning to introduce vehicle tracking systems for better fleet management. While this means big bucks for companies engaged in manufacture of e-logistics devices, cellular service providers can also help themselves to a slice of this pie, since the vehicle tracking systems essentially use the cellular networks for two-way communication between the tanker owners and drivers. IOC, which accounts for about 56 per cent of the country's total petroleum consumption, has taken the lead in this regard, with HPCL and BPCL putting up similar schemes on their drawing boards. IOC is launching real-time truck tracking solution with the help of BSNL and Chennai-based E-Logistics, which has brought out a patented vehicle tracking system called e-Track. The truck tracking solution operates on GSM technology, which involves mounting a tracking device on the truck. The device operates on the mobile network through auto generation of SMS messages at pre-determined intervals, which are captured by BSNL's towers and communicated to the central server of E-Logistics. This enables the company to provide a wide variety of information such as the precise location of a truck, idle time and estimated time of arrival at destination, to the truck owner. "Initially, we will be fitting 4,000 trucks carrying IOC's products with this device. The cost of tracking equipment is about Rs 7,500 exclusively for IOC's XtraPower fleet card members, with a monthly cost of Rs 500 towards SIM card, SMS cost and backend application service," an official of E-Logistics said. The tracking solution does not require any intervention of the truck driver and data gets automatically transferred to E-Logistics as the truck passes through a cellular tower. Two-way communication between the truck owner and driver can be provided through telemetric services. IOC has a network of over 22,000 retail sales points, with a marketing infrastructure supporting 165 bulk storage terminals, installations and depots and over 87 bottling plants. Industry sources said that HPCL is also planning to launch vehicle tracking systems, having recently completed a pilot project. They added that BPCL is studying the vehicle tracking devices market, while initiating dialogues with some of the manufacturing companies and cellular service providers. With the concept of fleet management through e-logistics solutions gaining brisk grounds in the country, industry observers are of the opinion that new players would enter the market, bring out new tracking devices.
Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page
|
Stories in this Section |
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | The Hindu Images | Home |
Copyright © 2005, The
Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu Business Line
|