Transportation Industry Showing Signs Of Recovery
Data from Geotab reveals some fleet industries performing well
At a time when a lockdown in reaction to a pandemic, economic uncertainty concerning the political state of the U.S. and more cautious consumer behavior has affected the vehicle service industry, a few blips on the industry radar indicated some positive signs. According to Geotab, a company that specializes in monitoring technologies dubbed as telematics for the transportation industry, there are signs that the sector is starting to recover from the dramatic slowdown earlier this year.
An August report released by the company revealed that fleet activity after the first week was on an upswing, at levels close to what was seen in February. Also found in its data was another spike in July, roughly about the time the federal government was reopening the economy.
Demonstrating the strongest level of recovery were fleets operating in the public sector, as well as retail, waste treatment and environmental services and manufacturing. Other fleet management areas showing bright spots between dips included construction, consumer services, energy and utilities, healthcare, telecommunications and various business services. One sector that’s still in a slower recovery mode, however, was in the non-freight transportation domain, which includes the car rental industry.
“While many of us were sidelined by the COVID-19 pandemic, sheltering in place and working from home, truckers continued to maintain their pace, transporting essential goods across the country,” said Scott Sutarik, VP, Commercial Vehicle Solutions at Geotab about the difficulties fleets faced during the shutdown. “One of the biggest issues that truckers have faced during this time is that the routes they were accustomed to pre-pandemic have been riddled with ever-changing closures, hours of operation, regulations and more.
Geotab was eager to point to Aug. 6 as a date demonstrating the highest level of activity not seen since February, with considerable dips showing the effect of the lockdown during the first week of April, around the same time the U.S. surgeon general warned the country the pandemic would be as debilitating to the country as 9/11 and Pearl Harbor.
Geotab also reflected considerable optimism over trade across the continent, with activity between the U.S. and Mexico has reached levels surpassing traffic between the two countries in February. Trade involving freight fleets between the U.S. and Canada have also been on the upswing, although not to the extent the country has enjoyed with Mexico of late.
Telematics integration is also available in Bluebird’s car rental software to monitor and ensure the well-being of any vehicle in a car rental fleet. Additional data services beneficial to an operation include integrated GPS, identification validation, rate management and more.
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