The 12 best IoT projects in the past year were revealed ahead of this week’s Gitex conference in Dubai. They were chosen by an international jury of IoT experts from Wialon, Teltonika Telematics, Volvo Construction Equipment and the IoT M2M Council (IMC).

The winners were selected from entries that came from 24 countries. Any tech company could participate in the IoT project of the year. Location, software and hardware selection, and size of the company, weren’t barriers to entry. 

The award recognises companies from all sectors that implemented the most creative and effective products and services using IoT and telematics technologies. This year saw projects from 24 countries compete for the project of the year title, with the winners delivering efficiency and cash savings measured in millions of dollars.

The winners were selected by an international jury of IoT experts, assessing entries in categories ranging from cold-chain transportation and long-haul shipping, to agriculture and public safety. The IoT award is software and hardware agnostic, and was open to any company.

The winning projects show a wide array of business offerings, from reducing waiting times in cold-chain management in the UAE, to tracking for the railway construction wagons in Switzerland, preventing cargo and vehicle theft in Mexico or Thailand, reducing fuel consumption by 30 to 50% for fleets in central Asia, South America and Africa, optimising staff transportation and associated costs in Sri Lanka, developing GPS tracking in agriculture in Israel, or enabling driver safety monitoring in remote areas with severe weather conditions in the Arctic. 

The award demonstrates how fast IoT and telematics are developing and shows how innovative applications change not only a specific business, but also our everyday lives.

“Telematics today is becoming embedded into an increasing number of industries across the globe,” said Aliaksandr Kuushynau, head of Wialon at Gurtam. “The flexibility of the technology means solutions are limited only by users’ creativity. And the IoT project of the year contest highlights the best industry solutions that have been delivered over the past year, inspiring businesses to become more efficient through IoT.”

The IoT Project of the Year 2022 winners are:

• Cold chain transportation and Community Choice: MaliaTec (Lebanon). This allowed the carrier to reduce waiting times and increase the number of delivery windows to four per day, significantly higher than industry standard of two.  
• Ready-mix concrete: Geoservice. This improved the level of transparency, control and automation keeping dispatchers and clients updated on 500 orders daily.
• Long-haul shipping: Cobertura Total en Telemetría (Mexico). Accident monitoring system with AI cameras for a transportation company in Mexico can determine responsibilities in accidents and identify poor control and driver management.
• Fuel transportation and storage: Geoservice. The fleet management and fuel consumption monitoring made 30 to 50% fuel savings. 
• Construction and demolition: Tracking Africa (South Africa). The fuel monitoring system saved 4500 litres a month from theft.
• Public transport: Kloudip (Sri Lanka). The IoT technology helps save $12,500 per month optimising staff transportation and associated costs.
• Agriculture: Ananas Global (Israel). GPS tracking for agriculture management that will soon be launched internationally.
• Public safety: Montrans. A driver safety monitoring system for an Arctic based transportation company ensuring safe transportation in remote areas with severe weather conditions.
• Local deliveries: Ruptela (Lithuania). The GPS fleet tracking system for Thailand Post Distribution ensured authorised vehicle use, reduced theft, improved driver behaviour and reduced fuel consumption.
• Special recognition: Afritrack (Tanzania). A driver risk management system for a cargo management company that led to 90% of the incident alerts being addressed in a timely manner.
• Special recognition: Traklink (Jordan). A driver behaviour monitoring offering that improved driving behaviour by 85%, decreased speeding by 90% and increased compliance with labour laws by 95%.
• Special recognition: Gotthard Handels (Switzerland). LoRa asset tracking that improves railway wagon management and provides better customer service.

“There were so many creative applications of IoT and telematics that it was a challenge to choose the winners,” said Andrei Liatsetski, jury chairman, and head of project implementation at Wialon. “But just looking at the logistics sector, it is clear that this technology solves problems that cannot be addressed any other way. Businesses in this industry are exposed to numerous risks such as theft of vehicles, cargo and fuel and these risks can be monitored and mitigated using telematics and IoT technology. IoT also allows fleet managers to reduce the cost of unplanned maintenance by monitoring all aspects of a vehicle’s performance to ensure remedies are in place before any malfunction occurs.”

The IoT project of the year is organised by the team behind Wialon, a telematics and IoT platform with over 3.4 million vehicles and other assets connected all over the world. Services based on the Wialon IoT platform are implemented in over 150 countries. Wialon is designed by Gurtam, a European GPS tracking and IoT developer headquartered in Vilnius, with offices in Boston, Dubai and Buenos Aires.