Nexgen to provide satellite based vehicle-tracking system

Pune-based Nexgen Logistix, an infrastructure technology company with focus on logistics, has tied up with UK based Satamatics to provide real time satellite based Automated Vehicle Tracking System for supply chain management in India. Nexgen will be using geo-stationary satellites of INMARSAT in the Indian Ocean region to track vehicles in India.

According to the ORG-Marg survey commissioned by Nexgen in India, about 55 percent of the corporate were ready to use satellite based tracking services immediately while 73 percent of the transportation companies were willing to invest in it immediately. About 66 percent of the transportation companies acknowledged that they were receiving a demand for tracking vehicles from the clients. The corporate was also enthusiastic about the service with 32 percent of the corporate expressing their willingness to share the cost of setting up the facility with the transportation companies. Faisal Ali, MD, Nexgen Logistix puts the market potential for real-time track and trace services in India at Rs 200 crore to Rs 250

crore.

"All the fleet tracking and tracing facilities in India are driver dependent on which neither the corporate or the transportation companies can rely completely. Using our AVTS, users can logon to our site and track the vehicles registered with us. It would give a history of the route the vehicle has taken and can be used to generate vehicle activity reports also. And the trials have shown that AVTS cuts down the hidden costs by 20-25 percent," he added.

Nexgen intends to rent out the equipment-a weatherproof box with an antenna fixed on top of vehicles-bundled with the services. In the first year of operations it expects to put 40,000 transceivers on vehicles and reach two lakh at the end of third year of operations.

It would be investing around Rs 60 crore in a phased-manner for building the necessary infrastructure.

According to the tie-up with Satamatics, Nexgen will market Satamatics systems for the broadest range of applications.