The installed base of FM systems in the Americas will exceed 18 million units by 2021

2017-07-21

According to a new report from the leading M2M/IoT market research provider Berg Insight, the number of active fleet management systems deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in North America was 6.7 million in Q4-2016. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.0 percent, this number is expected to reach 13.5 million by 2021. In Latin America, the number of active fleet management systems is expected to increase from 2.5 million in Q4-2016, growing at a CAGR of 12.9 percent to reach 4.7 million in 2021. The top-25 providers of fleet management systems in the Americas together have today a combined installed base of more than 6 million active units in the region. Notably, all of the top-15 players each had more than 100,000 active units in the Americas at the end of 2016. More than 40 percent of the total number of units deployed in the region is represented by the five largest fleet management vendors alone. Verizon has as a result of an ambitious acquisition strategy captured the pole position in the fleet telematics space in terms of size.

“The combination of Verizon’s Networkfleet, Telogis and Fleetmatics operations under the same ownership has clearly cemented the US-based carrier as the overall leader from a global perspective”, said Rickard Andersson, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight.

In the Americas, Verizon is estimated to outnumber the closest competitors by a factor of three. The runners-up include Trimble, Geotab and Omnitracs which have all surpassed 500,000 active fleet management subscribers in the Americas as of the end of 2016. Zonar Systems is the fifth largest provider in the region, now majority-owned by Continental while Daimler Trucks North America has retained a minority stake.

“The OEM telematics initiatives in the Americas have intensified in recent years and most vehicle manufacturers now offer factory-installed fleet telematics solutions either independently or through partnerships with established aftermarket fleet management solution providers”, said Mr. Andersson.

He adds that large installed bases of OEM telematics systems are now found especially on the North American market where partner-powered systems are particularly commonplace. Telogis is for example working with vehicle manufacturers such as Ford, Hino, Volvo Trucks, Mack, GM, Isuzu and most recently Mitsubishi Fuso Truck of America. Notably, also manufacturers having developed OEM telematics systems in-house have in recent years started to collaborate with aftermarket partners, for example to offer tailored functionality for specific local markets.

“Berg Insight anticipates that the partner strategy will continue to grow in popularity among the commercial vehicle manufacturers at the expense of in-house telematics development efforts”, concluded Mr. Andersson.