Truck manufacturers, distributors, fleet operators, insurance companies, financial institutions, and public agencies all want a piece of the loads of data that powers the national logistics engine.
Photo from CFP
By TANG Jun
In China, more than 11 million trucks haul a 5-trillion-yuan (US$800 billion) market. And that generates a lot of data. Driving style, emissions, location, speed, and vehicle performance are but a few of the streams harvested by black boxes that trickle their data all the way to banks, insurance companies, and almost anyone else who wants to pay for it.
And it seems that almost everyone who has a stake in the vehicle, or the goods it transports, does indeed want to.
Most of the data is collected by black boxes. For a variety of reasons, everyone wants their own and most trucks now have several, with overlapping functions. And along with black boxes come a thick grey fog of real and potential disputes. Who, for example, owns the data: the truck owner? the manufacturer? the owner of the black box? And exactly how much data does the manufacturer want to make public? Who has entitled it, and who should be granted access?
It is easy to grasp the nature of the problem, but it is a very complex conundrum to solve, and there is absolutely zero among stakeholders on what could or should be done. Further complicating matters is data privacy. Big as big data gets, no one has bothered, until recently, to ask drivers whether they want to be monitored or not.
Since 2014, all 12-ton-and-above trucks are required by regulation to be fitted with navigation tracking devices. The most basic function of these devices is to track the speed, mileage, and location of vehicles, and transmit the information to a national database. They give warnings when the driver exceeds the speed limit, or when it is time to take a break.
Seemingly benign diagnostic, the devices will monitor emissions and malfunctions of all heavy trucks starting from July.
Most of these basic tracking devices are installed by the truck manufacturer or dealer for quality control and warranty purposes, and the drivers seldom even know their existence. The haulage companies are interested in fuel consumption, loads, and fleet management so they install another black box, but the trucking company is not usually the owner. Most trucks are owned, at least in part by their drivers.
Recently, express shipping companies have installed much more sophisticated devices which take a more hands-on approach. Insurance companies and mortgage providers want their slice. Apps are quickly taking over from the physical boxes.
Knowledge, it is said, is power. Knowledge, however, is simply data, held in a distant cloud instead of a human. Data providers are therefore amassing power as they accumulate digits. In an industry as data-reliant as logistics, this power commands a very high price.
Sinoiov operates the “internet of vehicles” platform of the national freight database and charges 0.5 yuan per inquiry per vehicle, a substantial amount given 11 million trucks tracked during each trip by shippers, recipients, fleet operators, and everyone else who has a stake. On top of that, more than twenty identity and license verifications can be carried out through the platform, all at a small charge.
Similar databases are being built by tracking device makers to package data into products, for example. Aero Zhonghuan, a tracking device maker, claims that it can save 37,000 yuan per truck in fuel alone.
Everyone in the field is trying to get their hands on the most timely, accurate, and comprehensive data. Everyone, that is, except the drivers, who are tracked whether they like it or not, and, in most cases, pay for the tracking devices. Devices, most everyone agrees that there are far too many of.
The government has issued guidelines on data sharing in logistics, including a ban on mandatory installations of devices with similar functions, but the problem is far from being resolved. Many companies prefer to collect their own information even though it can be obtained directly –at a cost - from the national freight database. Some government agencies and fleet operators want more granular data, sometimes at the millisecond level. Moreover, no one wants to share data with their competitors
Concerns over data ownership and privacy are growing. In May, a regulation was passed which requires data collectors to inform drivers and passengers of the collection of sensitive personal information through ‘prominent’ notifications and data deletion on request. Almost no device on the market meets these requirements. Sharing data and protecting privacy may not have been on top of data companies’ to-do lists, but it’s work that has to be done.
