Aliaksei Shchurko, CEO and co-founder of Gurtam, states: 'By 2035, we may see a revolution in the transport industry'

Aliaksei Shchurko, the CEO and co-founder of Gurtam, has been leading the software development company, specializing in IoT solutions with a focus on fleet tracking, for over 20 years. He attributes the success of Gurtam, which started as a family business over 20 years ago, to two essential factors: opportunity and hard work. Headquartered in Vilnius, Gurtam's solutions are used in over 160 countries, powering over 300,000 projects and connecting approximately 5 million vehicles to its software.

“At Gurtam, our key focus is on maintaining and enhancing our leadership in telematics. This requires us to continuously refine our product portfolio, prioritize technology, and optimize internal processes to drive innovation,” Shchurko told The Baltic Times Magazine.

Yet, the company’s greatest asset, as Shchurko proudly states, is its team.

“We focus equally on retaining our existing team members and integrating new talent into our workforce. My long-term goal as CEO is to ensure that everyone at Gurtam is happy and fulfilled in their roles,” he emphasized.

How did the company start?

As many sources note, Gurtam began over 20 years ago as a family business. However, I'd say Gurtam started with a strong idea, a challenge, and a desire to solve it, backed by a lot of hard work. Our initial goal was to create a solution that would allow fleet owners to monitor their vehicles remotely. This led to the creation of Wialon, which would later become our flagship product. Over time, we added features like a fuel control module, and in 2007, we introduced web-hosted fleet management, eliminating the need for software installation. This marked a “wow” moment in the industry, setting the stage for future innovations.

From there, Gurtam expanded Wialon’s capabilities and developed flespi, a powerful backend that processes, analyzes, and routes telematics data, making it easier to integrate with various platforms. We also extended our offerings to end users through the GPS-Trace platform, released in 2007 as a tool for smaller fleets and technology evaluation. Today, more than 5 million vehicles worldwide are connected to Gurtam’s products, impacting industries such as logistics, delivery, construction, micromobility, and transportation. At every stage, we push boundaries in fleet management and IoT solutions.

How does it work practically? For instance, if I own a 100-truck fleet, what solutions can you offer me?

Great question! If you own a 100-truck fleet, Wialon would be the ideal tool for your business. It's a platform for real-time tracking and digitalizing critical data, including vehicle location, fuel consumption, axle load, and driver behavior. This "digital shadow" allows you to instantly measure and compare performance across individual trucks or the entire fleet. On average, fleet management systems (FMS) like Wialon reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by 10-20%, boosting both profits and driver payouts.

As a fleet owner, you might not be aware of flespi since its main function is to provide dataflow between a device in your truck and your FMS or ERP. However, if you’re using any FMS in Europe, there’s a good chance your data passes through flespi.

For smaller or personal vehicle fleets, we recommend GPS-Trace—an easy-to-use, affordable tracking solution. It's ideal as a starting tool for simpler GPS tracking without the complexity of a full-scale FMS like Wialon.

In short, Wialon provides full-scale fleet management, flespi powers data integration, and GPS-Trace offers basic tracking. Together, these solutions meet all your tracking and fleet management needs, from simple to complex.

How does your service stand out from competitors?

Two factors set Gurtam apart: our team and our depth of expertise. With over 20 years in the industry, we've seen a lot, and this experience allows us to anticipate and address industry needs before they become trends. Our expertise is the foundation of our product development strategy.

Despite this experience, we retain a startup mentality. Our team is highly dynamic, and new ideas often spark immediate action. Additionally, our close relationships with business partners and clients enable us to adapt quickly to their needs. I'm proud to say that Gurtam delivers top-quality products, support, and service, ensuring that our clients receive the best in both technology and operations.

Your portfolio includes niche and comprehensive products, cloud- and server-based platforms, and mobile apps. How is this valuable?

Our portfolio includes three core products, each adding value to the telematics software market. The key difference is how they meet the diverse needs of different clients.

Wialon remains our flagship product, serving over 2,700 global partners across 160 countries. That’s nearly the entire world!

However, we continually push ourselves to innovate, which is where solutions like flespi and GPS-Trace come into play. These products cater to different niches, allowing us to explore new possibilities in telematics software. This diversification lets us support our clients as their software partner for any project they undertake.

How much do you use AI-based solutions?

We began our AI journey in December 2023 with an AI assistant in flespi, which now handles over 60% of communications, gradually reducing human involvement in customer service. In early 2024, we started developing Gurtam's internal AI platform, which is now integrating GenAI services into Wialon and other internal tools.

This platform allows every Gurtam employee to create their own AI assistant, instruct it to perform tasks, and configure it using both personal and company-wide knowledge sources. These assistants are much more than chatbots—they are designed to perform specific tasks within tools like CRM, email, ERP, and more.

How will AI and emerging technologies reshape the transportation industry over the next 5-10 years?

Not drastically, at least not immediately. It will likely take one or two decades for AI to make decisions currently handled by humans, such as fleet management and autonomous driving. While better batteries and energy sources are in development, we’ll need advancements in those areas before major transformations can occur. By 2035, we may see significant changes, such as efficient batteries and self-driving trucks, revolutionizing the industry.

What are the major milestones Gurtam has achieved?

The first major milestone occurred in 2006 when we decided to focus exclusively on the telematics industry. It wasn’t an easy decision. On one hand, we had stable revenue, a straightforward workflow, and a predictable future. On the other hand, it was a leap into something new, uncertain, but full of promise—where our future would depend entirely on us.

The second milestone came in 2009 when we replaced Wialon with a completely new version. The previous version was gaining momentum, but we made the bold decision to release a brand-new one and abandon the old version. This sparked difficult discussions and a battle between the engineering and business development teams. In the end, engineering prevailed.

In 2022, we closed our main development office in Minsk and relocated hundreds of employee families to Lithuania. Despite the challenges, we survived and continued our journey.

Currently, we are undergoing a major internal transformation, reshaping the company’s priorities and processes. This transformation, which began at the end of 2022 and is expected to continue until 2028, involves redefining our values, technologies, priorities, and products—including our GenAI services.

With a global focus on sustainability, how can transportation innovation help reduce carbon emissions and environmental impact?

The first step is embracing innovation. While we often highlight the powerful capabilities of our products, many businesses still have significant opportunities to adopt digital systems that support sustainable fleet operations and transportation management. The value is clear—I recently calculated that the fleets connected to Gurtam's solutions help reduce CO2 emissions by an amount equivalent to planting around 100 trees daily.

By adopting these digital systems and utilizing them to their full potential, companies can significantly reduce operational costs, gain real-time insights into their fleet's performance, and make more informed, data-driven decisions. This is the future of sustainable fleet management, and I’m proud to see how Gurtam’s global partners are already benefiting from these advancements. It’s an impressive outcome, considering we started just over two decades ago.

Who are the brightest people on your team?

Almost everyone around me. Our people are all unique, driven by their own aspirations, with their own strengths and weaknesses. When deciding who can lead a particular direction within Gurtam, I carefully consider various factors in choosing the right person.

That said, every individual on the team has great potential. If someone is not performing well for any reason, I see it as my responsibility, as their manager, to provide the right motivation and support to help them succeed.