Mainfreight, New Zealand's largest freight and logistics company, is one of the 14% of Kiwi businesses now using an Internet of Things solution.
According to IoT service provider Spark, the early adoption of an IoT solution by Mainfreight and others has helped rank NZ as the fourth most IoT-ready country – even compared to G20 countries and despite our relatively small GDP and population.
Spark now has its first end-to-end IoT asset tracking service available to NZ businesses – and it's already being employed by Mainfreight to keep tabs on hundreds of segregation bins used to transport hazardous goods.
Spark says its IoT service can bring together extensive IoT networks and a selection of cost-effective IoT devices, paired with digital monitoring dashboards and a support service provided by Spark's daytime help desk.
Spark's digital services lead Michael Stribling, says asset tracking is consistently ranked as a top use case for IoT across consumer, business and industrial markets: "Industry forecasts indicate the number of devices using tracking location will grow by 40% in the next two years. 
"However mainstream adoption has been slow due to high cost, the complexity of deployment, technology limitations and the small number of technology providers offering scaled IoT solutions.
"Our move into providing an end-to-end IoT asset tracking service means we're providing businesses with key digital services that will allow them the best chance to innovate and succeed in a digital world.
"Spark's scale and expertise in the IoT industry and our newly-launched nationwide networks means we've been able to launch a product that is competitively priced, and we can provide proven guidance to businesses on how to deploy and adopt IoT that fits their needs."
Mainfreight's Chemcouriers subsidiary is using Spark's service to digitally monitor workflow and asset utilisation and Mainfreight CIO Kevin Drinkwater says: "We have over 400 segregation bins, that each cost in excess of $4000, that would previously go missing or be misplaced.
"And, on top of that, we need to abide by the stringent policies we've put in place to ensure our people and the public are safe when we transport hazardous goods.
"Before IoT, locating these assets was very much a manual process – with the team undertaking stocktakes around our depots, counting bins and sending reports back to the office. By the time this happened, the data was already out of date.
"Now we see GPS locations of bins mapped to one dashboard and are alerted in real-time when something is where it shouldn't be or has been stationary for too long.
"That's important because we get imbalances on our network – a lot goes south from Auckland, so we need to know when to drag them back.
"Receiving automated alerts means we have improved our logistics planning and our asset network can be rebalanced faster, resulting in more productive asset utilisation and reduced cost as fewer bins are required in circulation."
Businesses wanting to keep track of their assets using the Spark IoT solution will pay a one-off device fee, ranging from $100 to $280 per device, plus a monthly subscription per connected device – costing between $7 and $17.