Strategic considerations for adopting IoT technologies in the logistics and transportation industry

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) corresponds to the rapidly growing network of physical “Things”, including sensors and actuators, that collect and transmit data via the internet. IoT, powered by emerging connectivity technologies like 5G and Edge Computing, is disrupting all industries, especially manufacturing, energy, health and logistics. Warehouse management and asset tracking are the key use cases in the logistics industry. Similarly, asset tracking and traffic management result in cost savings and improved efficiency in the transportation space, particularly public transportation. With increased spending on IoT and an exploding network of connected devices, understanding the key strategic considerations hindering and promoting the adoption of these technologies becomes crucial for logistics and transportation (L&T) industry leaders as well as for its partners. Therefore, stakeholders across the automotive, telecommunications, logistics, transportation and urban planning sectors will be interested in examining the barriers and opportunities presented by the emerging IoT and adjacent technologies for the logistics and transportation. The Logistics and Transportation industry remained ahead of the curve and adopted Internet of Things technologies fairly early on, starting with telematics devices on trucks. The adoption rate of IoT technologies in the sector was expected to grow at a CAGR of 17% by 2020 from approximately 27% in 2017 . The industry’s spending and absolute growth in spending (in billion dollars) on enterprise IoT platforms is expected to be second only to the manufacturing and natural resources industry by 2023 . The presence of several large telecommunication and technology players like AT&T, Ericsson, Cisco, IBM, Intel and Google in the IoT market for the L&T industry further indicates the immense potential of it.