On 20th December 2020, the Indian govt took a big decision by announcing that by 2023 they would make the whole nation free from toll plazas. Now the toll money would get debit via the GPS tracking system installed in your vehicle. This decision is made to maintain the seamless movement of all the vehicles on toll plazas. Currently, all the cars, bike, and trucks congest the toll booths, which becomes irritating for commuters. To avoid this congestion, the government would make it compulsory for all kinds of vehicles to have a GPS tracker installed in their vehicle.

This decision is a big boost for the telematics industry in India. With the advent of mobile technology, GPS, and the Iot, the telematics industry has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. The rise in the use of smartphones has also given this industry a boost. It is one of the fastest-growing segments in India. In 2018, the Indian govt passed a resolution that made GPS installation compulsory for all public transport with a capacity of six or more seats.

India is not new to telematics. It already has many players in this industry; Autocop, MapmyIndia, and newly emerging Onelap Telematics are just a few of the top players in this category. In 1978, the Telematics term was coined in technology development. In the initial days, it was used to measure the distance traveled, which was a big revelation at that time. However, today the world and market have changed a lot. These days telematics technology enables customers as well as fleet owners to monitor their drivers’ behavior. Here we will go into some details in some of the top players of the Telematics industry in India:

1. Autocop:

Autocop started its journey in 1989. However, initially, Autocop wasn’t made for tracking; it’s begun monitoring vehicles and items from 1997. It provides you with live tracking with real-time updates. It sends you alerts regarding your vehicle on the mobile application, SMS, and Email. Autocop’s primary mode of sales is generated through offline retail stores.

2. MapmyIndia:

MapmyIndia is a Delhi-based company which was founded in 1992 and has regional offices in Bengaluru and Mumbai. It offers navigation, Iot, Analytics, and web mapping for mobile devices and desktop. MapmyIndia also offers OBD (on-board-diagnostics) advanced GPS tracking devices for car. Like Autocop, MapmyIndia also generates most of its income through offline sources.

3. Onelap Telematics:

Onelap Telematics was founded in 2016, but it has become one of the top players on E-commerce platforms for the past one year and established itself as a best-seller on Amazon in the GPS category. It’s not a giant in the market but is the fast-growing brand in the telematics industry. Unlike Autocop and MapmyIndia, Onelap Telematics generates most of its earnings through its website and E-commerce platforms.

Future of Telematics

Many factors indicate the upscale of the telematics industry. However, some factors can hamper this industry’s growth, like data hacking, high installation cost, and poor internet connectivity. Among these three factors, data hacking is the most severe as it can put customer’s security in jeopardy. 

Most people install a telematics-based GPS tracker to save their vehicle from theft and the money put into buying that car or bike. However, customers get irritated when they have to pay the high installation charges after purchasing a GPS device. Every area of the country doesn’t have good internet connectivity. Therefore, whenever your vehicle with Telematics installed enters a blind spot, that means a place that doesn’t have a perfect network, then it can’t show you anything. Even after exiting that area, it takes time to load the previous data.

According to a report by iSuppli, the BRIC region has the fastest growing industry compared to western countries. The telematics industry is catapulted by growing theft incidents, rising fuel prices, and fuel idling. 

Today in India, telematics is just telling the real-time locations of personal vehicles and fleet vehicles. However, there is a massive scope for this industry to grow in the country. This growth can be fuelled by the high demand for telematics and monitoring systems for logistic firms. According to a report, the Indian telematics market’s worth will reach $300 million by 2022.

Source: News X