The way goods move has undergone challenges in the last few years between the pandemic, workforce shortages, rising costs, and most recently the negotiations to avoid a financially damaging railroad strike, have shown how vital, yet fragile, the logistics industry can be. Resilience and flexibility into operations can be achieved through IoT, which can address the crucial touchpoints along the supply chain both in logistics and in fleet transportation.
Supply chain interruptions are relatively common, with 43 percent of organizations reporting unexpected changes in the supply chain on a weekly basis. Many logistics organizations are looking to digital solutions to help mitigate these challenges. According to Gartner, 87 percent of supply chain experts surveyed responded they plan to invest in creating a more resilient supply chain.
IoT has the potential to build resiliency in the supply chain in several key ways:
Visibility: Container identification, global location information, and cargo monitoring/feedback enable assets to be holistically tracked along the supply chain. Full-coverage IoT connectivity ensures that the tracking devices associated with IoT deployments are consistently communicating so visibility is not lost.
Multi-Modal Accessibility: Whether assets are traveling by rail, air, road, or sea, IoT can track assets and generate the appropriate chain of custody documentation so there are no gaps along the IoT-driven supply chain.
Inventory and Warehousing: IoT can help mitigate inventory “disappearing” between the tiers of the supply chain. With location-based services and a comprehensive user interface, IoT can provide information on where assets are at rest.
The fleet industry faces signification challenges in moving goods – workforce and training, rising costs of fuel and insurance; availability of equipment for fleet; regulatory compliance; safety; and much more. IoT can provide a suite of location-based services that help mitigate these challenges.
Route Optimization: Goods that are not delivered on time can impact customer relations and the bottom line. With advanced telematics and real-time data, fleet managers can make informed decisions about scheduling and routing to avoid delayed deliveries.
Vehicle Maintenance: Fixing issues before they become problems that stop fleet vehicles running as they should or breaking down in-route can help mitigate unexpected delays. Through telematics, vehicle health can be holistically monitored, and vehicles can be serviced before an issue occurs.
In-Vehicle Video: Monitoring drivers through in-cabin video can help support driver training, lower insurance costs, and support investigations in the event of an accident. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems pairs with in-vehicle cameras equipped with artificial vision that scans the driver for unsafe behavior and sends alerts in real-time, as well as documenting for fleet managers.
While IoT can create significant benefits throughout the supply chain, issues such as regulatory compliance, connectivity, and a fragmented vendor ecosystem can complicate a deployment quickly.
KORE is hosting a webinar “IoT in Transport and Logistics: Driving Innovation” on September 29 at 11 a.m. ET, 3 p.m. GMT. This webinar will examine the recent results of a global survey “Serving the Enterprise” conducted by Kaleido Intelligence. The survey breaks down the opportunities and challenges in IoT by industry segment. KORE, Kaleido Intelligence, and KORE customers will come together in a panel discussion to take a detailed look at the survey results and to offer real-life strategy and experience to make the most of the opportunities and minimize hurdles.
Registration for the webinar is now open. 
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