CLEVELAND, Ohio—Phillips Connect has released two new SmartLock products designed to safeguard trailer loads. The Phillips Connect’s SmartLock Gladhand and SmartLock Door are on exhibit at the American Trucking Association’s Technology & Maintenance Council Annual Meeting (TMC) this week.
The SmartLock products ensure that only authorized persons can move or unload the trailer they are attached to, according to the company. Both are activated or deactivated by a digitally authenticated command completely controlled via Bluetooth LE communication interface.
The SmartLock Gladhand prevents any unauthorized movement or towing of any asset requiring a pneumatic gladhand connection. The locking pin that prevents air to the gladhand can only be activated or deactivated with the digital command. It is powered by an integrated non-rechargeable battery pack and requires no external electrical connection. The SmartLock Gladhand can be used on either the red (emergency) line or the blue (service) line.
During a TMC press conference, Jim Epler, EVP of Phillips Connect, explained that SmartLock Gladhand prevents unauthorized movement or towing by locking trailer brakes and ensures that only the correct truck is connected to the trailer.
“The internal battery unlocks with a digital command and stops third-party companies from using your trailers,” Epler said.
The SmartLock Door is a stand-alone device that replaces the standard seal and can be installed in five minutes, Epler noted. With the SmartLock Door attached, the trailer door can only be unlocked using the digital command by fleet dispatch personnel, an authorized person at the receiving location, or it can be set to automatically unlock when entering the yard by leveraging the Connect1 platform.
Epler added that the SmartLock Door be automated within approved geofences and includes a chain of custody, so fleets will know if this is ever unlocked during a trip.
“Trailers haul valuable commodities that the fleet is responsible for once they pick it up. And with common carriers pulling trailers that belong to others, there has always been the risk of hooking up to and hauling the wrong unit from a crowded yard,” Epler stated. “These two pretty simple devices could easily eliminate those risks.”
In addition to SmartLock, over the summer, Phillips Connect introduced an interior cargo camera that captures the status of the load in real time. The solar-powered Phillips Connect CargoVision camera monitors and can report the quality of the load (green = safe, red = unsafe) before the doors are open for unloading. With this information, fleets can take actions to safeguard against injury, the company pointed out.
According to Rob Phillips, founder and CEO, smart trailers comprise different technologies working together, or collaborative sensing. As smart trailers are gaining more industrywide attention, Phillips Connect is working with three of the five largest fleets in the country, Phillips pointed out.
“I think a lot of the mid-sized fleets look to these larger fleets to see what they are doing,” he said. “In the last three to four months, with the customers we’ve drawn, I feel like we are starting to gain a lot more visibility.”
Phillips added that another step is working with OEMs to make the technology standard on all trailers moving forward; however, he doesn’t believe acceleration will be driven by OEMs.
“I think it will be fleet driven,” he said. “Fleets are asking for APIs and for us to pipe data in, and we do all the backend analytics as a secondary service for them. That’s what we are seeing a lot more of right now. The other part is integrating with all the ELD manufacturers out there. That’s really our next step.”
