Dive Brief:
- According to a global study commissioned by SOTI and conducted by Arlington Research, roughly 70% of CEOs in transportation and logistics lack understanding about the role of mobile technology, even though such devices have become vital to service delivery, DC Velocity reported last week.
- In addition, a significant number of logistics companies remain flummoxed by enterprise mobility, despite the likelihood that the Internet of Things (IoT) is likely to hit 30 billion devices by 2020.
- Approximately 69% of global respondents to the study note a significant investment in mobile devices meant to set themselves apart from other operators, yet are unable to take the next step toward greater integration to transform their workforce. The result is a hodgepodge of capabilities.
Dive Insight:
The freight and logistics industry is just beginning to adopt IoT technologies such as sensors for tracking equipment and freight, in order to both provide and improve transparency. Logistics companies like RedBite, General Steel, and even Amazon are already looking into using RFID tags and QR codes to track packages.
RFID tags can also share environmental data like weather conditions that could mean the difference between delay or delivery. Sensor technology can also help track internal vehicle temperature.
Employing this kind of technology within trucking can make all the difference to the cold chain, which often includes pharmaceuticals. RFIDs are not only able to gauge current temperatures, but also provide a record of whether temperature conditions have ever proven problematic for cargo, be it tomatoes or Tresaderm. Logistics experts who lag on adoption of this useful technology could be falling behind the industry standard quicker than they realize. Mobile technology will streamline supply chains, and unless established logistics professionals learn to utilize it, they will be left behind by younger start-ups.
