According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of active fleet management systems deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in Europe was 2.5 million in Q4-2011.
Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.9 percent, this number is expected to reach 5.7 million by 2016. The fleet management industry is yet again affected by the financial crisis in Europe, but it is still clear that 2012 will be a positive year generating growth of 10–20 percent. A group of international aftermarket solution providers have emerged as the leaders on the European fleet management market. Masternaut is ranked as the largest player overall in terms of installed base with close to 260,000 units deployed today. TomTom Business Solutions was the fastest growing vendor also in 2011 and has now surpassed 200,000 subscribers. Digicore and Trimble have also joined the exclusive group of fleet management providers in Europe having more than 100,000 active devices in the field. Transics is number one in the heavy trucks segment with an estimated 75,000 active units installed.
“Nine major mergers and acquisitions took place among the vendors of fleet management systems in Europe during 2010 and the first half of 2011”, said Johan Fagerberg, senior analyst, Berg Insight.
“In the past twelve months there has been a slowdown of M&A activities and no major events occurred”.
Mr. Fagerberg anticipates that the market consolidation of the still overcrowded industry will continue and that a second wave of transactions is likely to take place in 2013.
A major trend in the past year has been the announcements of standard line fitment of fleet management solutions. Since the end of 2011, Scania is rolling out the Scania Communicator as standard on all European markets and includes a four year basic service subscription. The new generation of the Actros trucks from Mercedes-Benz contains the FleetBoard vehicle computer as standard in all EU27 countries since October 2011. Volvo is going in the same direction offering Dynafleet as standard in some markets. MAN TeleMatics is since July 2012 standard on the new truck model TGX EfficientLine.
Introduction: A second wave of market consolidation anticipated for 2013
Fleet management is an ambiguous term used in reference to a wide range of solutions for different vehicle-related applications. Berg Insight’s definition of a fleet management solution is a vehicle-based system that incorporates data logging, satellite positioning and data communication to a backoffice application. The history of fleet management solutions goes back several decades. On-board vehicle computers first emerged in the 1980s and were soon connected to various satellite and terrestrial wireless networks. Today mobile networks can provide ubiquitous online connectivity at a reasonable cost and mobile computing technology delivers very high performance, as well as excellent usability. All of these components combined enable the delivery of vehicle management, transport management, driver management and mobile workforce management applications linking vehicles and enterprise IT systems.
Commercial vehicle fleets play an essential role in the European economy. According to official statistics there were 35.5 million commercial vehicles in use in EU23+2 in 2008. The 6.2 million medium and heavy trucks accounted for more than 75 percent of all inland transports, forming a € 250 billion industry. Approximately 0.7 million buses and coaches stood for 9.3 percent of all passenger kilometres. Last but not least, the greater part of the 28.6 million light commercial vehicles (LCV) in Europe was used by mobile workers and for activities such as distribution of goods and parcels.
Berg Insight is of the opinion that the European fleet management market has entered a growth period that will last for several years to come. Individual markets may however suffer temporary setbacks, depending on the local economic developments. The number of fleet management systems in active use is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.9 percent from 2.5 million units at the end of 2011 to 5.7 million by 2016. The penetration rate in the total population of non-privately owned commercial vehicles is estimated to increase from 8.8 percent in 2011 to 20.1 percent in 2016.
A group of international aftermarket solution providers have emerged as the leaders on the European fleet management market. Masternaut is ranked as the largest player overall in terms of installed base with close to 250,000 units deployed, mainly in France and the UK. TomTom Business Solutions was the fastest growing vendor also in 2011 and has now surpassed 200,000 subscribers. Transics is number one in the heavy trucks segment with an estimated 75,000 active units installed. Other significant players include European companies such as Vehco, Navman Wireless, TRACKER and Trafficmaster and international players like Trimble and Qualcomm from the US and the South African telematics providers DigiCore and MiX Telematics.
All major truck manufacturers on the European market offer OEM telematics solutions as a part of their product portfolio. Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Scania launched their first products in the 1990s and followed by MAN in 2000, Renault Trucks in 2004, DAF Trucks in 2006 and Iveco in 2008. The products are all supporting the FMS standard and can generally be deployed in mixed fleets even if some functionality can be brand-specific. A major trend in the past year has been the announcements of standard line fitment of fleet management solutions. Since the end of 2011, Scania is rolling out the Scania Communicator as standard on all European markets and includes a four year basic service subscription. The new generation of the Actros trucks from Mercedes-Benz contains the FleetBoard vehicle computer as standard in all EU27 countries since October 2011. Volvo is going in the same direction offering Dynafleet as standard in some markets. MAN TeleMatics is since July 2012 standard on the new truck model TGX EfficientLine including a 4-month trial for the service.
Nine major merger and acquisition activities took place in Europe during 2010 and the first half of 2011. In the past twelve months there has been a considerable slowdown of activities and no major events occurred. Berg Insight anticipates that a second wave of consolidation is likely to start in 2013. The latest transaction was done in June 2011 when Transics acquired the European activities of CarrierWeb. Francisco Partners acquired Masternaut in April 2011 forming the leading player in Europe from the Masternaut and Cybit operations. Another acquisition was done by Vehco in Sweden that acquired Elomobile in France in March 2011. Trimble acquired Punch Telematix in July 2010 and DigiCore acquired in the same month Minorplanet in the UK along with the associated businesses in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
