Four in Five Large Fleets Have Adopted Connected Vehicle Data Services

Latest Fleet Advisory Hub report shows connected technology growth will rely on providers building trust in data security and demonstrating value to smaller fleets

As the commercial vehicle and fleet industries continue to rapidly adopt new tools to improve efficiency and uptime, one emerging technology is already impacting the bottom line of large fleets. Connected vehicle data services (CVDS), which include software and platforms that provide fleet operators a resource to manage their data from their vehicles in the field, have exploded in popularity among fleets managing at least 500 vehicles.

Those are the latest findings from Fleet Advisory Hub^TM, a leading insights tool designed to explore the needs, expectations and emotions of commercial vehicle and fleet decision-makers. The platform was developed in 2019 by Escalent, a top human behavior and analytics advisory firm.

The new Fleet Advisory Hub report offers a closer look at the value proposition of CVDS and which fleets are finding the most benefits:

• Thanks to economies of scale, large fleets have jumped headlong into integrating CVDS in their operations, with 79% of large fleet decision-makers indicating adoption of such technologies and another 8% actively shopping for them.
• Just 7% of micro fleets (managing 1–5 vehicles) and 24% of small fleets (6–50 vehicles) have adopted, but around half within each group are shopping, representing a ripe opportunity for CVDS providers.

“The big fleets ‘get it’ when it comes to connected vehicle data services and the ways those offerings can positively impact operations, service, maintenance, routing, dispatch and other core functions of their business,” said Lucas Lowden, insights consultant and program lead of Fleet Advisory Hub at Escalent. “Providers must now find ways to offer similar value to smaller fleets, which are eager to adopt but hesitant due to cost and return.”

While large fleet adoption is a cause for optimism among CVDS providers, these organizations make up a very small portion of the market—representing just 2% of the Fleet Advisory Hub audience. To continue to grow their businesses, service providers must find ways to demonstrate value to smaller fleets.

One such path to increased adoption among micro, small and medium (managing 51–499 vehicles) fleets is the opportunity to share CVDS data with additional parties beyond the primary data source partner to maximize the return on their investment. Among fleet decision-makers currently using telematics services or CVDS, 85% are sharing with external partners. Common implementations include sharing vehicle telematics data with insurance providers to enable usage-based insurance, or with fleet management companies for a more comprehensive view of the vehicle life cycle. These opportunities are fertile ground for CVDS providers to identify individual pain points for smaller fleets and demonstrate how data sharing can provide an additional layer of value.

Despite confidence in the data and the partners they’re sharing them with, more than half of participants have concerns about data security (59%) and data privacy (56%), while two in five (41%) mention data ownership as a chief concern. In total, three times as many fleet leaders are concerned about data privacy as they are about the complications of integration.

“Connected vehicle data service providers face a host of opportunities as the industry grows more technologically advanced,” added Lowden. “But those opportunities come with significant challenges—chief among them being the ability to win and maintain their customers’ trust with respect to value and security.”

Fleet Advisory Hub^TM is one of the largest collections of commercial vehicle and fleet decision-maker insights available on the market today. Currently, nearly 10,000 fleets collectively numbering over 800,000 vehicles are represented.

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