The Solution
An Affordable Service for Small- and Medium-sized Businesses
Hacobu’s service consists of five applications collectively called “MOVO,” and is designed to function alongside complementary services and products from outside companies to create an effective end-to-end logistics ecosystem.
These solutions include:
- MOVO Fleet: A movement manager that tracks vehicle locations and routes
- MOVO Berth: A tool for truck reservation and other reception services
- MOVO Vista: A delivery case management service
- MOVO Seek: Distribution and material monitoring
- MOVO Dispatch: A vehicle dispatch management system
Central to this suite is the movement management service MOVO Fleet, the first of these services developed by Hacobu. By attaching a GPS-equipped IoT terminal to a truck, this service enables the operator to determine the truck’s current location, lay out an optimized delivery route, and provide accurate ETAs to end customers. Since 2018, the device has also doubled as a drive recorder, which can track a host of atmospheric factors, such as the amount of CO2 emitted by the vehicle.
MOVO Fleet was developed out of what Kusumi believed to be a need for more affordable solutions tailored to B2B logistics companies.
“We saw small and medium-sized transportation companies unable to improve and streamline their delivery routes because they couldn’t afford to efficiently monitor the status of their vehicle deliveries,” said Kusumi. “We thought that by providing a tool that would allow them to manage their dynamic information inexpensively, we would be able to raise the level of digitization in the industry as a whole.”
The MOVO system helps logistics companies maximize efficiency by digitizing antiquated practices such as the phone relay. In the case of traffic congestion, bad weather, or natural disasters, for example, the company would have to call the driver, or their subcontractor company, and then the client company would call the driver to confirm…and so on. The IoT device at the heart of MOVO Fleet service, meanwhile, transmits vehicle data every five seconds, replacing these legacy structures with a means of asset management that is closer to real time.
The MOVO Fleet further simplifies the process by creating a dashboard that collects all of the necessary information in a single, accessible place. “Another key point is that if we install IoT devices in the vehicles of our subcontractors, they can be managed on the same screen as our own vehicles,” said Takeshi Yoshida, Engineering Manager at Hocobu.
There is also a function that allows users to manage the delivery plans of an entire fleet of vehicles all at once, including ETAs, route status, and driving history. This enables a host of additional features, such as alerts when a vehicle has been delayed and route optimization through travel time analysis.