IoT Fleet Telematics in the AT&T Global Supply Chain

The AT&T Global Supply Chain organization owns a fleet of nearly 400 vehicles that deliver network and consumer equipment from distribution centers to garages, central offices, and other locations across the South, the Mid-west and the Southwest regions of the U.S. These vehicles also pick up returns and/or defective equipment from these locations and transport these items back to the distribution centers.

The logistics team overseeing deploying this fleet was experiencing operational challenges including:

• Lack of visibility to routes and stops: They had limited visibility around routes and stops from distribution centers to delivery and pickup locations, with 65% of stops being ad-hoc. The feedback loop to the planning team designing routes for drivers was also severely constrained due to inadequate data.
• Underutilization of assets: Insufficient knowledge of the current utilization of vehicles made it difficult to plan for proactive maintenance or long-term vehicle purchases and retirements. Long-term goals of improving efficiency of operations leading to on-demand logistics was proving elusive with the logistics team’s current systems and processes.

Solution: The team turned to AT&T Internet of Things (IoT) technology to help solve their challenges and right size their fleet. The IoT-enabled AT&T Fleet Management (AFM) platform performs near-real-time monitoring of vehicles, drivers, and trips. It delivers data-driven insights, enabling logistics managers to design more efficient routes and improve productivity and safety of vehicles and drivers.

This solution was selected by the logistics team for a 6-month trial across 168 vehicles in only the Mid-West region. The GO device installation and AFM platform deployment were simple and quick to complete by their in-house fleet operators. Managers were trained to use the platform, and comprehensive reports were created to meet their objectives.

Active monitoring of vehicles on their daily schedules through the platform resulted in better design of routes and reduction of extraneous stops by 5800, i.e., a 5% reduction in stops annually.

Increasing vehicle utilization and right sizing future vehicle purchases helped deliver cost savings. Driver safety was enhanced by monitoring aggressive driving such as harsh braking, harsh cornering, and acceleration and providing necessary coaching to mitigate these behaviors.

The Mid-West AFM trial was a great success, and the team is now deploying the solution to vehicles in other regions.

Contact AT&T today to learn how IoT solutions can help your business.