Gurtam among automakers at Comtrans 2019

The only IoT zone at the expo was located in the centre of the Hall 14, next to Mercedes, MAN, Iveco, and Hyundai. Gurtam partners found themselves surrounded by brand new semi-tractors, dump trucks, vans, and refrigerated trucks. Truth be told, this made the partners stress out a little, as nothing is more painful than watching the vehicles they haven’t connected yet.

But later the IoT zone barely stood up under the flood of visitors. Keep reading to know what they were looking for.

Transport security

The two gold Wialon partners shared the responsibility for solving a number of issues such as collision avoidance, stolen cars recovery, 16-meter trailer safe parking, etc.   

AVANTERN Telematics specializes in federal leasing projects. Once they’ve installed the tracker, they will surely find the monitored vehicle both within the territory of Russia and outside it. During the fair, they also showed the samples of hardware they normally work with and surprised the visitors with the most unusual places to find stolen vehicles (for example, at the official dealer’s office!)

By the way, AVANTERN entertained the attendees by finding two Gurtam employees hidden inside the truck with a radio beacon – the most engaging experience at the expo.

Global Position based in St. Petersburg focuses on complex solutions for transport security. They’ve developed a solution for preventing accidents and created a driving quality assessment system.  

During the exhibition, Global Position showed their Driver Fatigue Detection System, AI-based MDVR for the driving situation control, and video solutions for blind zones elimination in road trains.

“We’ve got here to make the industry of transportation security grow. Currently, the companies are going round in circles. But at the same time everyone realizes how much the cargo loss costs, not to mention a human life. That is why we have a strong intention to improve driving quality and reduce road fatalities,” says Sergey Polyakov, Project Executive at Global Position.

Agriculture  

Agribusiness owners as a rule were sent to the Mielta booth. Here, they could explore the “brains” of harvesters and tractors they daily work with. They got to know:     

• how each parameter influences the vehicles cost-effectiveness;
• how to automate attachments work (for example, how to switch between operating modes based on the weather conditions or processing speed without human involvement);
• how to make fuel consumption the least important problem for a fleet.

Economics and business automation 

Ladya Telematics designs complex solutions for smart cities, ships, and other challenging units. This Gurtam partner from Primorsky Krai (Far East region of Russia) has a full range of devices and in-house systems for the tasks of any complexity from lighting control at the hotel room to management of each and every unit on the oil tanker.

Yet Ladya Telematics doesn’t provide the client with data only. They apply unique algorithms for cost-efficiency calculation upon each parameter they keep track of. Thus, the client sees not the machinery operating conditions, but the way these conditions influence the cost of services. Yep, this is how it works with Wialon. 

If there is even the slightest chance of business processes automation, no doubt Tetron will make it real.   

• Wialon notifies of the tires wear – Tetron system orders new ones.
• Dispatchers make mistakes while filling in trip tickets – Tetron replaces them with a bot.  
• Economical and operational parameters are calculated manually – Tetron offers interfaces for digitalization.

“Wialon helps us to be more comprehensive while solving the client’s issues. We present our products at the IoT-zone, as we see that mutual efforts make the greatest results. So, if a customer faces some technological challenges which require both hardware and software solutions, here we work together to rapidly handle them,” says Leonid Kushnir, CEO, Tetron.     

Alongside specialized solutions we’ve already written about, Geoservice introduced its business processes automation bot for the first time. The company representatives actively used this chatbot during the show: it provided them with presentations, contacts, and success stories for particular challenges. In practice the chatbot works with clients at the initial stage, creates reports, adds new units to Wialon, and updates data. Developers say it is possible to embed any routine processes in the bot to help clients save their time.   

Last year, at Navitech 2018, Wialon-Service presented NEKTA, the platform for counters indicators analysis in smart houses. At Comtrans 2019 though, the company promoted itself as a service provider. Its specialization – fuel and temperature control, and video telematics – is becoming a standard one on the market, so Wialon-Service put emphasis on Wialon-based business solutions. Currently, they offer automation of the following services:

• billing;
• vehicles working time accounting for control centers;
• interaction with technical support via Wialon interface.

Wialon-Service has already created the solutions for all of this. For the rest, they just need the clients’ requirements, and they are ready to go.

Cold chain management

Quarta Technologies’ booth gathered the carriers of pharmaceuticals, perishable products, and other temperature sensitive goods. The company joined Gurtam IoT zone for the second time in a row with temperature sensors and IQ Freeze* mobile app.

When a refrigerator breaks down or a driver turns it off, the temperature starts rising, and dispatchers have about 5-6 hours to notice the problem and fix it. IQ Freeze* developers know this fact and want to keep the carrier informed about the problem right away, so there is as much time as possible to handle it.

By the way, the cost of the most expensive cargo that IQ Freeze* saved is $767,000!

Wireless Technologies 

Despite the fact that all hardware manufacturers are switching to wireless technologies, there are some of them who live and breathe it.

There are good reasons why Escort prioritizes research and development. The company had the largest team at the megabooth, and ithey were quite sure of one thing – “We walk IoT”. At the show, it demonstrated Escort TD-BLE wireless fuel level sensors. 

And their key IoT product is Sokol-M weather station. Whereas it is applied in agriculture in the first place, it is perfectly suitable for environmental data collecting in mining industry and port services.

For some years now, Technoton, a hardware manufacturer from Belarus, has been specializing in complex units telematics such as generators, ships, trains, oil derricks. At their booth, they showed fully automated fuel level sensors, axle load sensors, flowmeters with integrated battery, and S7 wireless data transmission technology. It means these devices can send data to Wialon, the mobile app, and the driver’s display at the same time which is perfect for a complex solution.

Satellite Communication 

As for connectivity, there was only one connectivity provider at the booth but it was the case when one company makes the difference. Iridium got all the issues regarding satellite communication fully covered, just like their satellites cover 100% of the Earth’s surface. Our partners has already had a chance to validate the company’s credibility. This time the provider introduced another global project – Iridium Certus broadband network. All the data, including telemetry, video, voice messages, will be sent to the server, even if you’re drifting somewhere in the middle of the ocean.  

At the Iridium booth, we spotted some Gurtam partners who connect fishing fleets. Perhaps, something big is coming. We’ll keep you posted.

New trackers and solutions by hardware manufacturers

Galileosky decided to go further their Easy Logic technology and create the “easy connection.” At the expo, they presented smart OBD trackers with the Easy Logic support and driving style control. The company provides the opportunity to place any operation algorithms created by an integrator in a vehicle in less than a minute.

According to the survey we conducted at the IoT-zone, 99.5% of service providers work with CAN-bus data. Galileosky made the process easier with CAN data decoder. Galileosky experts showed what kind of data can be received from an on-board computer and also how to teach a tracker to respond to the CAN parameters changes using Easy Logic.

Teltonika tops GPS Hardware Manufacturers TOP 10. At Comtrans 2019, Teltonika demonstrated their new devices with 3G, 4G and CAT-M1 support, mini CAN-reader, and industrial network routers. 

They also have a new Connectivity service. During the term of the contract, Teltonika offers the fixed price for data along with the platform for SIM cards administration.    

Just in time for the exhibition, Navtelecom released the SIGNAL S-2652 tracker. It was popular with passenger carriers and hazardous cargo carriers.

The capability to work with CAN data was definitely a trend at the exhibition. Navtelecom showed trackers that didn’t require a special adapter for CAN data reading which made it even easier to use. Another trend was the in-house software. Navtelecom has its own apps for trackers diagnostics, configuration, and remote control.

Satellite Solutions updated their trackers. They made it really simple for the clients to choose, as they just left three trackers suitable for any potential requirements on the satellite monitoring market.   

• The first terminal is for basic monitoring.
• The second one is for complex monitoring, including driving style control, two-way voice communication, or CAN data reading.
• The third terminal is for personal monitoring with the possibility to connect to a cigarette lighter. 

Well, let’s see how this works out.  

Ivan Glonassov showcased the hardware manufactured both by other exhibitors and those who didn’t make it to Gurtam IoT-zone. At the booth, you could find BCE trackers, tires pressure and temperature control systems, radio beacons, etc. So, even if manufacturers weren’t physically there, their devices were in demand thanks to Ivan.

“We’re glad to be the one to organize the only IoT zone here at Comtrans for the first time. We are surrounded by serious automakers, such as Volvo, Mercedes, Scania, Iveco. When people come here to explore the automotive sphere, they can also dive into the IoT space,” resumes Aliaksandr Kuushynau, Head of Wialon Division.

Right now, we are summing up the results of the expo and getting ready for a bunch of new connections. We give a shoutout to all the IoT zone participants – we would have never done it without you! But four companies should prepare for further achievements. Navtelecom, Galileosky and Escort, we’ll see you at the Gurtam IoT-zone in Dubai. And, Technoton, save the date – we’re going to LA together!