North American medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicle telematics market (Class 4 to 8 Vehicles) earned revenues of $713 million in 2010 and is expected to reach $1.4 billion in 2017, says Frost & Sullivan.

According to Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) industry analyst Sathyanarayana K, “The intertwining of safety and telematics can only increase regulations and mandates such as Comprehensive Safety Analysis (CSA 2010) and EOBR.”

Implementing CSA 2010 could prove to be a significant factor driving interest in voluntary adoption of EOBR, Sathyanarayana added. The adoption of fleet management system (FMS) in the future will be greatly driven by this demand.

The analysis titled, “Strategic Analysis of North American Medium and Heavy-duty Commercial Vehicle Telematics Market (Class 4 to 8 Vehicles),” finds that a shift toward mid- and high-end FMS, with navigation, prognostics and EOBR, expects to see higher penetration of telematics subscribers.

The growth of EOBR is inevitable and over time, it is likely to be offered on all trucks, phased-in naturally; thus, increasing telematics' penetration, Frost & Sullivan said.If the EOBR and CSA 2010 are implemented successfully, almost 150,000-200,000 drivers will be left out lacking commercial driver's license, or will be fined or forced to retire early, leading to a labor shortage. In some of the U.S. markets, the trucking industries already face shortage of drivers.

This challenge of driver retention due to the electronic driver logs and driver scoring system is likely to increase the demand of FMS offering truck-approved navigation routes, according to Frost & Sullivan’s report.

“This trend might indirectly provide demand for navigation, enabling new drivers to easily and frequently adapt to new routes,” according to Sathyanarayana. “Navigation will also help drivers to keep their trucks on the truck-approved routes, thereby avoiding costly out-of-route miles.”

Meanwhile, in a recent report Global Industry Analysts predicted that worldwide commercial vehicle telematics market will reach $11.2 billion by 2015. According to the report, revenues for Telematics Services market in the U.S. are expected to surge at a CAGR of 13.5 percent during the analysis period.



Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Rajani's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell