Fleet management doesn’t often make headlines. But behind the scenes, it’s where many businesses are finding real gains in efficiency, service quality and sustainability. As supply chains grow more complex and customer expectations sharpen, knowing the location, condition and performance of your vehicles in real time is becoming business-critical.
With the rise of IoT, fleet operations are evolving fast. From vehicle-embedded SIMs to smarter routing and emissions tracking, connected technologies are giving organisations clearer visibility and control than ever before. In this article, we look at how IoT is driving change across the fleet landscape, and what that means for sectors like logistics, retail, utilities and emergency services.
What is fleet management?
Fleet management is the process of managing an organisation's vehicles. This includes overseeing many different aspects of transport, such as timing, location and maintenance schedules.
Modern technology has transformed how businesses regulate the movement, distribution and efficiency of commercial vehicles. In addition to this, increased demand on both international and domestic shipping has further increased the necessity of accurate fleet management.
Three Group Solutions has decades of experience in using technology to provide industry leading fleet management solutions which utilise our extensive network, technology and expertise. Our position within the CK Hutchison Group affords us unique expertise on integrating our network with vast infrastructure systems.
How can IOT technology be utilised in fleet management?
Fleet management can primarily utilise IOT technology through the use of vehicle tracking devices such as:
Embedded Smart SIMs: This is a physical SIM card that’s soldered directly onto a device’s circuit board during manufacturing. It’s rugged, tamper-resistant, and ideal for harsh environments like vehicles or industrial equipment. It provides reliable connectivity and can be remotely managed, making it a strong fit for long-term IoT deployments like fleet tracking.
eSIMs (Embedded SIM): While also embedded, an eSIM is a rewritable chip that allows multiple mobile network profiles to be downloaded and switched over-the-air. It offers greater flexibility than traditional SIMs, especially for global deployments, as it enables remote provisioning without needing to physically swap SIM cards.
In short: smart SIMs are about durability and real-time data transmission in fixed environments, while eSIMs add flexibility and scalability for managing connectivity across regions or providers.
“At Three Group Solutions, we understand that no two fleet operations are the same. Whether embedded smart SIMs or eSIMs are the right fit depends on what your business wants to achieve and how your systems need to integrate. Our role is to guide you through those choices—ensuring your connectivity solution is not only technically sound, but also aligned with your operational goals and future growth.”
Richard Taylor, Head of IoT Business Development, Three Group Solutions
Fleet management vehicle types
Our fleet management tools are suitable for several types of vehicles including:
- Freight vehicles
- Company cars
- Delivery vehicles
- Industrial vehicles
- Agricultural vehicles
How can our service improve fleet management
Supply chain and logistics management
The co-ordination of your fleet is crucial for any business where transport is involved. Supply chain and logistics management is a crucial need of every business that handles goods. The data collected through our fleet management solutions can greatly improve the accuracy of expected delivery times both for management and the customer.
Route improvements
We can use data acquired to devise route improvements, which can greatly improve time efficiencies and speed. Our network can integrate with data sources such as geolocation, traffic data and previous journeys to provide valuable route improvement insights.
Driver safety
Collecting data on active driving hours can help to provide reliable evidence that your business is adhering to the relevant laws and regulations that your fleet business is bound to. For example, the “Driver’s Hours” rules in the UK EU. This also provides great benefits in improving driver safety, minimising accident risk and related insurance issues.
Emissions reporting
In addition to route and location data, we are also able to gather emissions data for fleet vehicles. Reliable emissions tracking can be key in satisfying investor or insurance requirements and meeting corporate environmental goals. This is especially pertinent when businesses are required to report carbon emissions in line with directive’s such as the European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
Electric vehicle charging
The electrification of vehicles allows us to acquire even more fleet related data than traditional combustion fuels. You can use EV charging data to track fuel usage and costs. This information can be used to improve cost forecasting and account for recharging disruptions in route planning.
Maintenance and asset management
The data collected by your fleet allows you to accurately predict when maintenance should occur. This can greatly reduce costs from unexpected issues, reduce the chance of larger issues from occurring and reduce the amount of time that fleet vehicles are out of service
Security and theft
Through capabilities such as geofencing, we are able to use our network to provide comprehensive vehicle location information. This provides a great benefit for security, as knowing when a vehicle is out of its correct location can provide an early signal for when a vehicle has been stolen. This allows for a greater chance of recovery and less business down time from stolen fleet items. As well as additional evidence for a prosecution.
Fleet management example scenarios
Scenario 1 - European logistics
A mid sized logistics company servicing B2B clients required a solution to improve their profit margin and forecasting capabilities.
Using our fleet management tools, the company was able to install IOT SIMs into the majority of their fleet. The fleet consisted of a series of HGV vehicles, as well as commercial vans in a mixture of sizes. The vehicle SIMs communicated with a central system that integrated with the organisation’s previous fleet management system.
After one year, the company was able to save a significant amount in repair costs as well as improve delivery efficiencies and route times.
Scenario 2 - Courier of industrial equipment
An industrial equipment provider servicing the construction industry required a robust solution that allowed them to provide a responsive service to their clients with accurate delivery times.
This would allow them to better align with time sensitive customer requirements such as the ability to have the right equipment in place for when building materials arrived or for when specialist staff were on site.
Using our IOT fleet solutions, the company noted a reduction in customer issues due to vehicles not arriving at the right time and a reduction in administrative related costs due to improved data collection.
Scenario 3 - Emergency services
Our IOT fleet management solutions can also be used outside of the private sector for a variety of applications.
Emergency services can utilise private networks in order to maintain a stable, reliable line of communication during crisis situations. Our fleet management technology can also aid this by providing deeper insights into vehicle locations, allowing them to better allocate resources during an emergency.
Conclusion
Fleet management is no longer just about keeping vehicles on the road, it’s about using data to run them smarter. With IoT-enabled insights, businesses can respond faster, reduce costs and make better decisions about everything from maintenance to sustainability.
At Three Group Solutions, we combine deep connectivity expertise with the scale and infrastructure of CK Hutchison to deliver fleet management solutions built for modern operations. If you’re looking to take a more connected approach to your fleet, get in touch with our team or explore more about our IoT capabilities.
