Mar 23, 2010Royal Freight a shipping and transportation company based in McAllen, Texas, has begun using a wireless locating system from I.D. Systems to track the location and status of its trailers throughout North America. The new system provides the company with visibility into the location of the trailers and the cargo they contain, and also offers status alerts in the event that a trailer is opened while in transit. What's more, the system provides more robust power management that includes solar power panels.
The system incorporates the VeriWise technology that I.D. Systems had acquired when it purchased GE's Asset Intelligence Solutions division in January of this year. Each VeriWise sensor device stores a unique ID number linked to trailer data in the company's back-end server. It also contains a GPS unit to track the trailer's location, a CDMA cellular transmitter to transmit the ID number and location to cellular towers at regular intervals, and motion, cargo and door sensors. With the new system, Royal Freight expects to have greater location data about each of its trailers as they are being transported by its own tractors and drivers, as well as by third-party transportation providers. In addition, the firm anticipates being able to ensure greater security for the trailers' freight—typically, consumer goods and just-in-time raw materials and components
For the past seven years, Royal Freight had been using a different vendor's wireless, satellite-based tracking solution to keep a closer eye on the locations of its trailers throughout North America. Without such a system, trailers risked ending up pooling in storage yards while there may have been a shortage of trailers at other sites, simply because the company wouldn't have had visibility into where the empty trailers were located.
The first tracking solution Royal Freight had installed on its trailers provided each trailer's location and ID number, which the firm utilized to better manage the location of its fleet, and to reduce instances whereby it had too many or too few trailers in a particular area. "We were very pleased with the product we had," says Jason Head, Royal Freight's operations manager. As time passed, however, some of the devices were failing due to dead batteries, and replacing them was expensive. In addition, he says, the company was interested in expanding the system to not only track the trailers' location, but also know if the doors were ever opened during transit.
Trailers are vulnerable to theft when truck drivers park them in lots or on the side of the road, especially overnight. Thieves can break into a trailer and steal a partial load, and the driver could then deliver the load without being aware the theft has occurred. Security was even harder to verify when the trailers were being transported by third-party carriers.
For security purposes, the units are wired to a sensor attached to the trailer door. If someone breaks the door lock, or simply unlocks the door and opens it, the sensor detects that event and sends a notification with the unit's ID number and location, and the software will store that event, as well as issue an alert to interested parties, such as Royal Freight's management. A cargo sensor, installed in the front of a trailer, uses ultrasonic sound waves to determine if objects are loaded within. The VeriWise unit can then transmit the loaded or unloaded status, along with the time that status changed.
All transmitted information is sent to a Web-based server hosted by Asset Intelligence, and information regarding trailer location can also be translated using XML, so that it can be accessed via Royal Freight's existing management system.
In January, Royal Freight began removing the old units and installing new ones on a trailer-by-trailer basis. The company plans to equip all 1,500 trailers with the new technology, while all newly manufactured trailers will come with the units already installed. Royal Freight's workers received training from Asset Intelligence to perform the installations themselves.
Head already knows the value of wireless trailer-tracking systems. He describes an instance prior to using such a system, in which a trailer was parked a block away from its expected location but could not be found for many days. By using a wireless tracking system, he says, his company has greatly increased the utility of its trailers, because now he can ensure that empty trailers are moved to the location where they will be needed, and he can pinpoint the closest empty trailer if none is at that yard. "It's all about operational use, increasing our turn times," he states, and the additional door sensors offer him and his customers greater assurance that a trailer's contents have not been tampered with. "It lets our customer know that the product is safe."
The system is also available for shipping containers, Miller says, with four solar panels to provide additional power since the containers lack a power source from a tractor. According to Miller, I.D. Systems had been interested in the VeriWise product even before GE's existing Asset Intelligence Solutions division purchased Terion's trailer-tracking business and integrated it in 2007. I.D. Systems ultimately purchased that business as a way to expand into rail, truck and container transportation-management solutions.
