Most vehicles on the roads today are owned and managed corporately. Managing large fleets of vehicles can, however, be challenging. How can managers ensure their fleet is run and serviced efficiently? How are cost savings for fuel and repairs being realized? The key is an IoT-based Connected Car solution such as that developed by Device Insight for mobility provider MIND. As shown in our new case study, deployment in MIND’s own vehicle fleet alone revealed a savings potential of 14% in maintenance costs and fuel consumption.
What is important in fleet management? With MIND’s example, Device Insight shows how vehicle fleets can become smarter thanks to an IoT-based Connected Car solution.
Holistic mobility concepts will soon make driving more efficient and smarter. With this in mind, Dutch mobility specialist MIND has designed an intelligent fleet management tool, available via both app and portal: the MIND smartbox. A central IoT platform solution will be used for the backend, boasting the necessary performance, strength and scalability to retrieve, visualize and automatically analyze all relevant vehicle data, whether for an individual make of car, or for a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles from different manufacturers.
Device Insight was able to offer exactly the right setup, thanks to its flexible IoT framework and cloud expertise as an Azure Gold Partner. Within a short time, 85,000 vehicles were migrated to Device Insight’s new middleware. After only 12 months, all desired features could be integrated and the MIND smartbox was ready to go.
Fleet operators have complete overview of their fleet at any time via the MIND smartbox IoT portal: From fuel consumption to current location, from braking performance to engine oil pressure – all predefined vehicle data as well as driving behavior can be recorded in real time and made available via the well-arranged dashboard. The comprehensive Connected Car solution database makes it possible to create different reports, above all an electronic logbook which can be easily downloaded from the IoT portal and transmitted directly to the tax office. In addition, exact information about upcoming maintenance allows early planning and prevents greater damage. The result: less downtime and higher fleet availability.
On the road, data from the IoT-based MIND smartbox can be viewed via a mobile app. In the MIND app, drivers see their trip schedule, upcoming inspections, and an individual Driver Score. Based on acceleration, braking, adherence to speed limits and fuel economy, each driver receives a score. Fleet managers can use a comparative ranking to encourage their drivers to drive more economically and provide suggestions for more “eco-friendly driving”. Other features provide drivers with calling roadside assistance or arranging workshop appointments directly from the app.
The MIND smartbox is suitable for virtually any car, regardless of make or model. The central middleware is based on a Device Insight IoT platform solution which creates a Digital Twin for each connected vehicle. In fact, the MIND smartbox hardware only became truly “smart” once connected to the cloud. Device Insight’s underlying software ensures that a vehicle is correctly identified with all its characteristics such as vehicle type, make and year of manufacture. Thanks to integrated Azure services, the Connected Car solution is highly performant, scalable and secure. One benefit is “hyperscalability”. During peak periods, this allowed MIND to connect more than 2,000 cars a day to Device Insight’s IoT platform solution without any loss of performance.
In the free case study, you will gain concrete insights into the technological implementation and key components of the MIND Connected Car solution.
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