I’mHere 24×7 (a unit of Meridian Tracking Pvt. Ltd. (MTPL)), which offers a wide range of solutions such as vehicle tracking, fleet management, asset tracking, for commercial & personal vehicles, trucks, van and car fleet operators, is preparing a roadmap to revolutionize the domestic telematics industry. The Delhi and Ahmedabad-based start-up specializes in research, design, development, manufacturing, sales and support of cost-effective and technologically advanced GPS/GSM fleet management, asset and vehicle tracking solutions through its ‘I’M Here’-branded devices. The company have had significant success in the market by logging 12,000 subscribers for live vehicles in varied segments including public sector enterprises, private sectors and individuals.
In an exclusive interaction with MOTORINDIA, Mr. Saurav Arora, Co-Founder, MTPL, revealed: “What I find interesting in the Indian telematics market is that it is still in a very nascent stage. Even though this technology has been there for a while now, it is highly underexplored. Now there are many more companies getting into this segment. There is also a lot of thrust on ‘Smart Cities’ and ‘Smart Transportation’ would be its vital element. Moreover, the automotive market is tech-driven and India offers a huge opportunity for companies like us. Our solutions will not only help businesses but individuals too from the safety and cost control standpoints.”
Shedding further light on its business model, Mr. Arora asserted: “We work in partnership with our clients to develop solutions that deliver measurable business and operational benefits by providing total real-time visibility and control of mobile workforces. Under our brand ‘I’M Here’ our devices are regarded as one of the most resourceful and cost-effective vehicle tracking and fleet management systems available in the country. Our products have been well accepted because they are user friendly, lightweight, compact, competitively priced and are a VFM proposition supported by a four-hour battery back-up. We are using our in-house software and tools for our solutions developed and installed by our own skilled software developers and engineers respectively. We are also building a robust distribution network across various points of sale to increase our presence in market.”
Shedding some further light on its target group, Mr. Arora revealed: “Our product is configurable to all segments, such as bikes, buses, cars, three-wheelers, tractors and heavy duty vehicles. Out of our total sales pie, 85% is derived from fleet owners and the remaining 15% from individuals like cars, bikes or tractor owners. Within the fleet domain, it is a healthy mix between big transporters and smaller LCV ones. We are catering to a lot of big fleet owners operating out of Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, etc. We are also service small logistics players/individual truckers as a majority (more than 75%) of players are unorganised with a fleet size of 1-5 trucks.”
It is to be mentioned that MTPL has worked with some of the marquee clients/fleet operators like GNFC (for a customised dashboard for them), V-Trans, Sterilite Industries, East India Transport, Kishore Transport, North South, Goel Road Carriers, Yatayat, Darshan Roadlines, Medora Travels, etc. As Mr. Arora revealed: “We are interacting with a wide range of fleet owners from organized to unorganized ones. They are very open to next-generation yet simple technology offered by us. Many players are actually incentivizing their drivers to use this technology.”
Talking about its short and mid-term plans Mr. Arora shared: “We are working with bus operators where we are giving them our tracking solutions. We also see a huge scope in Regional Transport Undertaking, school buses, private tour operators, etc. We are also exploring opportunities with organised cab aggregators. Most importantly, we are on the lookout for deals with OEMs.”
When asked about competition and the challenges involved, Mr. Arora maintained: “It’s a big market and we are expanding the pie. Competition don’t deter us as we have a huge team of qualified industry professionals with hefty experience in telematics and fleet management sectors. We believe in industry standards and we assure to deliver the best solution as per the clients’ requirements. We have a proper control of every phase of our product that enables us to deliver an optimum and value solutions, at the same time conserving the flexibility to meet the ever changing needs of our customers. Our team has helped in many recovery of vehicles in case of theft”.
Currently, its devices are imported with a follow-on assembly happening in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. As Mr. Arora shared: “We do minor assemblies at Ahmedabad and are looking at a proper facility in the same city. We will either make it locally or outsource it to third party manufacturers. We are also open to inorganic growth whenever those opportunities arise. Whenever business demands the same, the company would take decisions. We are currently focused on building and expanding our network and subscriber base.” At present, the company’ service network is spread across 36 major cities in the country and after-market distribution network present in 15 cities.
Meanwhile, Meridian Tracking is aiming to reach a subscriber base of 200,000+ units in the next 24 months by 2018-19. By the turn of next decade, it is confident to be among the top 5 telematics players in the country. It is also running a separate division called Truckbridge.com, which is an online channel for booking of trucks and connecting various players in the ecosystem.
“We want to be among the largest vehicle telematics players in the country. We want to offer simple solutions to everyday problems and using technology which is already existing and offered in a simple usable manner,” concluded Mr. Arora.