Geotab and Webfleet Solutions have joined forces to help visualise the impact of COVID-19 on commercial vehicle activity and support strategic recovery efforts.

The global connected transportation, mobility and telematics firms, have launched the Commercial Mobility Recovery Dashboard, which analyses data from more than 3m connected vehicles around the world.

By combining their data analytics, the two companies aim to offer a greater level of insight that can help empower and inform the decision making of businesses and governments as they continue to navigate the effects of COVID-19.  

“As the world faces unprecedented challenges, it is now more important than ever to embrace open collaboration that supports our communities,” said Thomas Schmidt, CEO of Webfleet Solutions.

“Partnering with Geotab on this joint initiative not only brings together two leaders in the fleet management space but enables us to provide deeper data-driven insights into the current economic health of countries across Europe and North America. This will not only help support our customers to get their businesses back on the road but also governments and decision makers as they plan this new path to recovery.”

Examining commercial vehicle activity across countries in Europe and North America, including USA, Germany and UK, the dashboard provides insight into the movement of essential commercial vehicles throughout the two continents. Additionally, users can leverage the dashboard to understand how specific industries have been impacted, such as construction, business services and transport logistics. Commercial transportation activity is measured weekly against pre-COVID-19 baseline levels to provide an indicator of the state of the industry.

According to the Commercial Mobility Recovery Dashboard, commercial vehicle activity in Europe dropped as much as 36% during the pandemic, whereas North American commercial vehicle activity only dropped by 20% at its lowest point.

At launch, the dashboard shows that last week, excluding holidays, commercial vehicle activity in Europe (May 18 - 20) reached 86% of its normal activity levels while commercial vehicle activity in North America (May 19 - 22) was at 90%.

“As industries, businesses, countries and cities begin to explore and enact their post-COVID-19 strategies, commercial transportation activity can and should be used as a key indicator of economic health,” said Neil Cawse, CEO of Geotab. “Together with Webfleet Solutions, we are uniquely positioned to leverage and analyse our data for the greater good and provide deep, data-driven insights like never before for our collective customers and communities alike. This dashboard not only serves as a tool for COVID-19 recovery efforts but reflects the power of connected vehicle data as an essential tool to support unified, global recovery efforts across oceans, borders and industries.”

Other key insights include: 

  • Faster recovery rates in Europe, with commercial vehicle activity increasing more rapidly from its lowest point compared to North America. 
  • A steady increase in commercial vehicle activity in Europe, excluding weekends and holidays, with an increase of 4.6% based on activity levels from May 11-15 to May 18-20.
  • An increase in North American commercial vehicle activity of 2.2% over the same two week period, excluding weekends and bank holidays. 
  • The UK has witnessed some of the lowest levels of commercial transport activity in Europe compared to baseline, particularly since March 23. The country has been hovering in the 50-60% range, and as of May 22 commercial transport activity still only sits at 65%. 

More articles on: