A new fleet management solution from Bridgestone has the potential to make a big difference to how commercial vehicle fleets are run in the Middle East and beyond. Every market and every region in the word has its own peculiarities, habits, preferences and ways of doing business. This is as true for Europe and North America as it is for the Middle East and Asia. However, some practices and habits – those that can be termed as “best practices” – transcend geographies and are worthy of adoption globally.
Bridgestone’s Webfleet fleet management system is one of them – and Bridgestone is leaving no stone unturned to take its new fleet management suite to ever newer markets. The Middle East is among them.
The Japanese giant, already among the world’s largest tyre manufacturers, recently launched its Webfleet fleet management solution in the UAE, as the first step to a pan-GCC expansion. Speaking to PMV Middle East, Saeid Alkari, Product Engineer and Webfleet expert at Bridgestone, explains that the system is a premium fleet management solution developed by a European company called Tomtom Telematics, which Bridgestone acquired in 2019 and renamed Webfleet Solutions, the name under which it has been operating in Europe since then.
Now, Bridgestone is expanding Webfleet globally, and the launch of the service in the Middle East is part of a worldwide rollout that is seeing Webfleet being made available in geographies such as North and South America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, as well as parts of Africa, and other Asian markets to follow.
Bridgestone expands Webfleet from Dubai office
“Since Bridgestone’s Dubai office controls around 68 countries around the globe, we have been made the master distributor for a very wide territory for Webfleet. After Europe, we have launched Webfleet in the UAE now, and we have plans to roll it out in the entire GCC very shortly, in all countries in the region,” Alkari reveals.
“Since the acquisition of Tomtom and its rebranding as Webfleet, Bridgestone has continued developing, refining and improving both the hardware and the software of Webfleet to make it more reliable and efficient for our fleet customers.”
Explaining Bridgestone’s concept behind Webfleet he elaborates: “Webfleet is a premium fleet management system. We install a main device within a vehicle along with a wide portfolio of accessories, which can be installed based on the operational demands of a fleet of vehicles. As the Webfleet service provider, Bridgestone has control over the system’s hardware and software. We manufacture the hardware and we have the full control over the software.
“The main purpose of Webfleet is to gather and analyse data that not only places importance on the tyres that a fleet operator is running his vehicles on but also to pin-point the costs of running a fleet. Using Webfleet, fleet owners can reduce the total cost of running their entire operations through monitoring such parameters as fuel consumption, driver behaviour and others to not only reduce costs but also increase overall safety in operations.”
Two Webfleet distributors in the UAE
Detailing the process of a customer adopting Webfleet, Alkari explains: “We have appointed two distributors in the UAE market. For Dubai and the Northern Emirates, it is Al Serkal Group, who are already our tyre distributors. For Abu Dhabi it is Al Masaood TBA. So fleet owners who want to incorporate the Webfleet solution for managing their fleets need to just approach the distributor covering their territory. The distributor will then come in and do the rest.”
As the first step in the installation of Bridgestone Webfleet, the dealer consults with the customer to accurately understand requirements. Then, based on the evaluation of the customer’s needs, the dealer offers a customised solution with devices that fit the purpose for the particular customer.
“When these are all ascertained, the installation of the devices starts on vehicles in the customer’s fleet. We make sure that the installation is done in a thoroughly professional manner with trained personnel and experienced technicians. The next step after installation is the configuration of the devices and making sure they are connected to the platform itself, so that we can monitor the various kinds of data coming through from the vehicles. The data is then checked to ascertain that the successful installation of all accessory devices – such as driver terminals, cameras, sensors, etc.” Alkari details.
“As soon as this entire process has been completed, the system is handed over to the customer along with the devices. Then a training is conducted for the customer personnel on the best ways to use the solution and the data it generates. And whenever a customer needs support, we are available.”
The purpose of Bridgestone’s Webfleet is to analyse the data collected from the fleet and help the customer reduce costs and increase efficiency. A multitude of parameters are measured by the system. These include a vehicle’s speed, idling time, wasted fuel, tyre temperature and tyre air pressure, among other factors. Moreover, even some cargo parameters can be monitored, such as the temperature of containers being transported.
Special attention has been paid to the driver of the vehicle, with the monitoring encompassing driver behaviour as it pertains to aspects such as harsh braking and acceleration, turning and the driver’s state of attention – such as whether he is distracted or smoking, using his mobile phone, etc.
Webfleet’s wide scope
“Webfleet is not just about the tyres, not just about the engine, not even just about the vehicle, but much more – such as the human element in terms of the driver,” Alkari underscores.
“A unique feature of the system is the Order Optimisation option. Suppose a driver has multiple drop points within a city; as soon as you plot his drop points on the map in the system, Webfleet is programmed to evaluate the best route keeping in mind the delivery tasks at hand, the size of the vehicle, the traffic conditions during the delivery trips, etc. This aims to reduce both the mileage covered and the time required to complete the tasks of the trip, leading to increased fuel savings and higher customer satisfaction.
“So it’s not just about the vehicle and its components or even the driver – Webfleet also monitors and evaluates the external conditions, such as road congestion, to provide optimal fleet management solutions for customers.”
Alkari adds that in order to evaluate the external conditions, Webfleet uses two maps – the Tomtom map, which is an advanced navigation system, and of course Google Maps.
“Using these, Webfleet is able to offer another useful feature: Vehicle Scheduling. Linked to the Order Optimisation function, this system he can reduce the time it takes to make all the drops when a fleet has multiple drop points. Also, the system itself will take over the scheduling tasks, so that a fleet manager knows which driver or vehicle can optimally handle more work on a given day.
“Webfleet allows fleet managers to get a complete overview of the timeliness and scheduling for each vehicle or driver in their fleet and see where the gaps are in any scheduling and how best to fill those gaps.”
Giving more details about how Bridgestone’s solution functions, Alkari explains that the Webfleet hardware uses a Sim card provided by any telecom provider – for example e& or du in the UAE. The data collected by each piece of hardware or each Webfleet device is sent through the telecom network into the system’s cloud servers located in Europe, which analyse and display it to the customer on a dedicated webpage on the customer’s computer or the Webfleet app on his mobile phone.
“The monitoring is done on a live, 24/7 basis, so at any given moment in time, a fleet owner or manager will know what each vehicle in the fleet is doing, how the vehicle is performing, whether it needs any work done on it, how the driver is performing and how the utility of a driver and vehicle combination can be further optimised for greater productivity,” he says.
“The system can be configured to provide timely alerts on various parameters. For example, when it comes to predictive maintenance tasks, if you would like to schedule oil changes for your vehicles every 8,000-10,000km, then the system will send a notification to the fleet manager when the time comes.”
Bridgestone ensures comprehensive monitoring
The comprehensive monitoring that Bridgestone provides with Webfleet often uncovers driver behaviours that are detrimental to safety or sub-par for economy and efficiency. When such pain points are identified, rectification is available in the form of driver training.
“We have agreements with third-party service providers for driver training, so that the behaviours spotted can be rectified. In Dubai, we have an agreement with an RTA-approved company to offer this training to drivers. Some of the training parameters include how to drive with greater safety, how to use the vehicle better and minimise detrimental practices such as harsh braking and acceleration, etc. The driver is actually the biggest factor in the fleet’s efficiency and half the battle is won when a fleet has well-trained and optimised drivers.”
So are there any particular vehicles or brands that Bridgetone’s Webfleet is best suited for? Alkari informs that at the moment it is very compatible with vehicles from the major European manufacturers such a Scania, IVECO, Mercedes Benz, Volvo, etc., as well as leading Japanese brands.
“Users and prospective users can check the compatibility of their fleets with Webfleet by matching the make, model, fuel type and year of their vehicles with a dedicated list on the Webfleet website. Our website can directly guide you to the Webfleet devices that are compatible with the vehicles you own based on this matching process.
“However, compatibility isn’t really a problem. As long as we have full access over the hardware, we can do a reverse engineering on any vehicle if Webfleet devices are not compatible with it. Our development team in Europe can decode the vehicle and then we will be able to install the devices. So, even if a manufacturer is not on our list, we can still install Webfleet with reverse engineering.”
Benefits of Webfleet
Listing some of the tangible benefits of Bridgestone’s Webfleet, he recounts that these are more uptime, reduced fuel consumption, tyre management, improved safety – all of which lead to cost savings and improve the bottom line of the fleet business.
“Webfleet also has an ‘Asset Tracker’ function – a device that can be installed on any trailers or machinery, such as generators, enabling us to monitor such assets on the platform. This provides owners will real time knowledge of where each of their assets are and whether they are being moved. Using ‘Geozoning’, owners can limit the movement areas of their assets and receive alerts when the assets are moved out of the areas they have been geozoned within. This essentially is a way to safeguard against theft,” Alkari explains.
When it comes to market penetration in the Middle East, Alkari believes the Saudi market is key. “There is greater awareness and use of telematics in the UAE, but awareness is rising quickly in Saudi Arabia and we are very optimistic about our prospects there in the long term. Having launched in the UAE to begin with, Bridgestone is planning expansions into other GCC markets, led by Saudi Arabia, in the coming years,” Alkari concludes.