Wialon in Colombia: Takeaways from ESS+ 2026

Our first ESS+ was back in 2024. A year later, we introduced the Wialon fleet management hub to Bogotá. This year, we came back with an even bigger presence — a booth shared with 8 co-exhibitors and a Wialon partner dinner that outgrew every plan we had for it.

So, how did those 3 days in Colombia unfold? We’ll take you to the expo floor and our partner dinner, then explore 3 market signals highlighted by our conversations with telematics service providers. Along the way, you can put your Wialon knowledge to the test. 

ESS+ 2026 at a glance

One thing became clear early on: ESS+ is no longer just a Colombian event for our team.

"Wialon partners came from Mexico, Chile, the US, Venezuela, Paraguay, Argentina, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador — plus Colombia itself. Within just a few days, we built a much broader picture of what is happening across the Americas."

— Darya Chumak, Head of Partner Success at Wialon

10 countries mean different customers and regulations, but many of the same fleet management challenges. The Wialon hub brought software, hardware, and connectivity together to tackle them. 

Take motorcycle fleets: they are common in Latin America, and telematics service providers discussed how to equip them. Waterproof Mini-MDVRs designed for these vehicles were among the options to explore at the hub. Another topic was the transition away from 2G: some providers are facing large-scale replacements of legacy devices and are weighing their options.

__SLIDER_001__

AI came up, too. Visitors tried Lona, our AI-powered assistant for telematics service providers, and the Wialon app in ChatGPT. With the app, a fleet owner can ask a question in Spanish (or any other language), such as “Where were fuel fills logged last week?” — and get an answer in seconds. 

Our team also took the conversation beyond vehicles, with the in-person presentation of indoor asset tracking on Wialon Platform. 

The idea is simple: tracking doesn’t have to stop at the building entrance. Wialon Platform shows where a tagged asset was last detected — down to the building, floor, and zone.

What stood out after the demo was how quickly Wialon partners started connecting the capability to real projects: wheelchairs and beds in hospitals, equipment at airports, and tools in large factories. Indoor tracking can open up a new opportunity with an existing customer — a new use case and potentially a second contract.

__CTA_BANNER_001__

Partner dinner

By the second evening of ESS+ 2026, it was time to swap the exhibition hall for the restaurant. 

We initially expected around 80 guests for the Wialon partner dinner — in the end, 137 people joined us, and we were more than glad to welcome a bigger crowd.

__SLIDER_002__

The evening had everything our community dinners are known for — product insights, networking, and the chance to learn from one another. Several partners later highlighted the value of having Wialon, hardware manufacturers, and connectivity providers in one room. They could find the right people and resolve questions on the spot, rather than spend days or weeks exchanging messages and arranging calls. 

The dinner also brought a special moment: celebrating the Wialon Top 10 South America 2026 winner. The annual Wialon Top Partners ranking recognizes the companies that connected the most vehicles to Wialon in each of the 7 regions we operate in. This year, we’re taking the awards on the road, congratulating the leaders at major partner events around the world. Bogotá was one of the stops — and the spotlight here belonged to TecnoGPS, the Chilean company that moved up to #1 in South America. 

Recognizing TecnoGPS as the leader in the Wialon Top 10 South America 2026.

Guests also took a quick quiz that mixed telematics know-how with a few less-serious questions. We saved one question for you:

__SLIDER_003__

3 signals we brought home from Bogotá 

ESS+ gave us 3 days of direct conversations with companies that build, sell, and use telematics solutions across the Americas. Colombia was a fitting place for these discussions: demand for fleet management solutions here is growing fast, while price pressure remains high. 

__CTA_BANNER_002__

2 regulations shape demand. PESV (Strategic Road Safety Plan) requires companies with larger fleets to document and manage road safety risk. RNDC (National Cargo Dispatch Registry) requires cargo trips to be registered with the Ministry of Transport. For telematics service providers, both mean customers who need reliable trip, driver, and compliance data, which is exactly what fleet management delivers. 

At the same time, cargo and vehicle theft continue to create demand for safety and security solutions, while rising operating costs are pushing fleets to reduce fuel use, control maintenance costs, and improve efficiency.

So, how is the market responding? Our conversations in Bogotá pointed to 3 shifts.

• The market is dividing into 3 segments, and one solution no longer fits every fleet

“At one end, customers want basic tracking at the lowest possible price. At the other end, transport, logistics, and enterprise customers increasingly expect the full range of functionality, video, AI, and regulatory integrations. And in between, a new mid-market is emerging: fleets that look for customized, industry-specific solutions, but want to keep things simple.”

— Darya Chumak, Head of Partner Success at Wialon

That segmentation maps onto the Wialon product lineup:

• Wialon Lite fits straightforward, highly price-sensitive fleet management projects.

• Wialon Hosting serves complex, large-scale projects with a broad feature set, wide flexibility, and room for deep integrations.

• Wialon Platform is the natural fit for the mid-market segment. A telematics service provider can build a solution under its own brand and tailor it around a specific customer's needs.  

Plus, for projects where customers need to keep fleet data within their own infrastructure, there is also Wialon Local, the on-premises version. 

With Wialon, telematics service providers have the flexibility to match the product to the fleet, rather than fitting very different customers into the same setup.

• Video is becoming a requirement for more advanced fleets 

Not every fleet needs video, but for more advanced projects, it is increasingly moving from a nice-to-have to a core requirement. At ESS+, it was difficult to walk very far without talking about cameras. 

“Video is becoming part of the core fleet management proposition. But adding cameras is only the start: they need to work reliably with the platform, the software must offer the right video capabilities, and the commercial model has to fit the project. That is why telematics service providers increasingly evaluate the platform, hardware, and commercial terms together.”

— Darya Chumak, Head of Partner Success at Wialon

Telematics service providers discussed projects where video demand is driven by safety, security, and regulatory needs. For these fleets, the expectation is increasingly clear: fleet data and video should work in a single interface rather than live in separate environments. Wialon Hosting, Wialon Local, and Wialon Platform each support video alongside fleet data, offering different capabilities depending on the product.

• Telematics service providers are becoming solution builders 

Another signal from Bogotá was not about a particular feature or device. It was about the telematics service providers themselves.

“The strongest are moving from selling tracking software toward owning a specific business problem. Their competitive edge comes from the industry knowledge, regulatory expertise, analytics, or vertical application surrounding the tracking platform — rather than the GPS interface itself.”

— Darya Chumak, Head of Partner Success at Wialon

For Wialon partners, that means combining fleet data with their own specialization in logistics, security, analytics, or a specific industry, and turning it into a solution their customers can't easily find elsewhere. In Colombia, for example, Wialon partners have built focused businesses around logistics control towers, automated compliance reporting, and technology services for government transport oversight. That specialization is what lets a telematics service provider defend its margin when the market competes on price.

Gracias, Bogotá

Bogotá kept us busy: a huge thank you to our partners, co-exhibitors, and everyone who joined us — we hope to see you again next year. 

• Already a Wialon partner? Talk to your Partner Success Manager about which product fits the segment you're going after — or write to partners@wialon.com.

• Not a partner yet? Talk to our sales team about what Wialon can help fleets achieve: sales@wialon.com.

• Want to join the Wialon fleet management hub at a future event as a technology partner? Drop us a line at marketing@wialon.com.

__SOCIALS_EN__