Many different kinds of businesses and industries rely on vehicles as a large part of their operation. This could be trucking, construction, landscaping, limo services, or anything in between. Without vehicles, many businesses today would fail almost instantly.
With these vehicles being such an important part of the business, you always want to know where they are, keep them safe, and ensure they are looked after and stay in the best shape possible. One of the best ways to do just that is through connected vehicle technology.
A connected vehicle is one that has access to the internet, which can open up a world of different possibilities and situations. These can have huge positive impacts on any business that uses vehicles on a day-to-day basis.
Keep reading this article to learn more about some of the many business-related benefits of connected vehicle technology.
Security Benefits
As a business with a fleet of vehicles that are likely very important to the successful operation of your business, you want to ensure they are secure. The many security features included in most connected vehicles is one of the best benefits for businesses.
This includes tracking and location sharing in real-time, emergency SOS during accidents, roadside assistance when a vehicle experiences issues, and so much more. You can even use this information to ensure drivers are always doing what they should be, always obeying the rules, and not driving your vehicle in a way that is unsafe. All of these are vital to ensuring you always know where your fleet is and how the vehicles are doing.
Better Communication
In addition to better security and peace of mind, connected vehicle technology can drastically improve vehicle communication. This can let vehicles share information like road conditions, congestion, speed limits, and other things that are important to nearby drivers.
Some of this information can be especially important for compliance. The data collected from a car and communicated back can ensure drivers are obeying laws, taking the right amount of breaks, and doing the mandatory safety checks. GPS can instantly verify locations, and photos or videos can be instantly uploaded and sent to and from job sites or the road.
However, it is important to also be aware of the different types of connected vehicle technology. Not all connected vehicles may be able to do the exact same thing that another will. There is V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle), V2I (vehicle-to-infrastructure), V2X (vehicle-to-everything), and plenty of others.
Each can be used by businesses but will be slightly different in what they offer and how they work. Make sure you know which type of connected vehicle technology will benefit your business the most.
Of course, having a connected vehicle means much more access to things than with a traditional vehicle. As a result, you need to ensure that your team of drivers is always driving safely, and not being distracted by the many more things they might be able to do.
Advanced Navigation
Connected vehicles can also help with navigation. Poor navigation can be a major source of waste for many companies, and all would like to reduce it in their fleets if at all possible. Connected vehicles can often utilize the help of robust third-party apps to provide drivers with incredibly accurate and up-to-date navigation.
Also, in many cases, these cars can be alerted when a certain route is a faster drive than they are currently taking, and these technologies can also help vehicles find the closest available parking spot, in some situations.
Better Safety
Just like the security of your vehicles is important, so is the safety of your drivers. Thankfully, connected vehicle technology has a lot to offer in the safety department. They can alert drivers to potential dangers, and provide them with all important road-related information to ensure they make the right choices when driving. It can remind them to take security precautions, and remind them of important facts that can keep them safe.
Things like connected vehicle technology and automated vehicle technology can reduce the number of crashes by millions all over the world, and will save lives. Also, this technology can send diagnostic alerts, and records of a vehicle’s health can be created and can help you stay on top of routine maintenance for each vehicle, to ensure they all stay in great shape.
In addition to obviously reducing injuries and the potential for disasters, this reduction in crashes should help you save money, too. Insurance premiums will often be lower if your vehicles are getting in considerably fewer accidents.
Remote Access
One of the best benefits, both for professional and personal use, is the remote access that a connected car provides. Many manufacturers today provide an app or partner with an app that allows you access to many of the car’s features, even if you are not near or within the car.
You can remotely lock or unlock the car, start or stop the engine, close the sunroof, deal with climate control, and even honk the horn if need be. It is very good for peace of mind to have access to the car even if you are physically away from it, to make sure all is good. The car can also be easily tracked and located via GPS, too.
Improve Vehicle Efficiency
Any business that operates a fleet of vehicles, or even a single one, would love to see the vehicle be more efficient. The more efficient a fleet, the longer the vehicles will last and the lower their costs will be over time.
These tools can often provide drivers with recommendations to reduce stopping unnecessarily and ensure that optimal fuel economy is reached. They can also help fine-tune driving performance in many different ways, which provides a boost to the skills of your drivers and ensures they treat your fleet with respect.
An analysis of vehicle efficiency can also occur, which can help see and schedule optimal routes and get a sense of how each vehicle is performing over time compared to others. If used properly, these technologies can ensure each and every vehicle in your fleet takes the most efficient routes possible.
Crowdsourcing Information
Of the best benefits of connected vehicle technology for businesses is their potential for crowdsourcing information from drivers all over the world. This is more for the benefit of carmakers and manufacturers but is still an important benefit to mention.
With connected vehicle technology, these manufacturers can gather information from the many vehicles driving on the road, and then use various big-data techniques to make sense of the data and results.
This can help out automakers when it comes to learning which features people use, how people drive, and the sorts of things that should be added, removed and addressed when newer models are made and released. They can also learn which type of services they could offer that will benefit different drivers.
In conclusion, we hope that this article has been able to help show you some of the many business benefits of connected vehicle technology. It is still a relatively new technology but has incredible potential in many industries.