Connectivity isn’t just for clever cars. Tomorrow’s truck arguably stands to benefit most of all.

As the Internet of Things grows apace, we’re understandably excited about how advances in connectivity and networking will transform car travel. Yet our increasing reliance on transport by road makes it almost certain that the biggest beneficiaries will be not our Sunday afternoon drive or the weekday commute, but instead the trucks that ply our roads 24/7.

The communication buzzwords V2V and V2I – Vehicle to Vehicle and Vehicle to Infrastructure – are being touted as the answer to gridlock, heavy fuel consumption and emissions and traffic accidents.

One of the companies at the forefront of efforts in this field is Daimler Trucks, which casts the fully connected truck as a success formula for companies, drivers and society. Since the company decided in 2013 to pursue connectivity as an integral element of its technology strategy, more than 365 000 vehicles worldwide have been connected.

Elements of this connectivity could include: l Short- and long-range surveillance; l Monitoring of the road friction level; l Driver aids and information systems; l Inter-vehicle communication that can be used to optimised traffic flow; l Telematics.

Smart trucks aren’t that new. As far back in the 1980s, Daimler’s Promote Chauffeur system involved two interlinked semitrailer/tractor combinations. The lead vehicle used infrared signalling, a camera and a radio connection to transmit its driving status to the following vehicle, between 6 and 15 metres behind. As Autonomous drive wasn’t yet on the agenda, a human driver was in control.

By the turn of the millennium, the company had introduced its Fleetboard telematics system on board a major customer’s vehicles. For the first time, the truck now became a fully integrated element of the logistic transport chain, entailing route planning, continuous positioning and the transmission of vehicle data. A few years later, an upgrade to that system involved an interface that allowed data to be integrated into forwarding agents’ own software systems. At the same time Dispopilot, a mobile hand-held device for logistics management, navigation and scanning, was presented. The system now extends across 40 countries and covers 180 000 vehicles.

In North America, the company’s networked services in partnership with logistics and telematics developer Zonar Systems have encompassed the Virtual Technician remote diagnostics system and an all-round system it calls Detroit Connect. Virtual Technician sends a snapshot of the engine’s technical status to a service centre when warning lights come on so that the team there can analyse the data, identify the problem and send out an email with advice on what action should be taken.