ORLANDO, Florida—Trailer technology provider Phillips Connect is partnering with Utility Trailer to launch Utility Connect, which combines the trailer OEM’s proprietary wiring harness with the Phillips Connect Smart7 nosebox.
Phillips Connect CEO Rob Phillips announced his company’s exclusive Utility smart trailer deal—and several other new products, including three new smart noseboxes and a backup trailer camera—during media day at the Technology & Maintenance Council Annual Meeting and Expo.
The Utility Connect will include GPS trailer tracking, light-out detection, intelligent ABS fault code reporting, tire inflation system monitoring, and the ability to connect to additional sensors, including door open/closed, ultrasonic cargo detection, and interior cargo cameras, among others. It also has built-in expansion capabilities, offering over-the-air communication updates that will integrate with advanced tire pressure monitoring systems and Bendix’s roll-stability system, trailer weight, air tank pressure, and optional brake pad wear-sensors for disc brakes.
Phillips said future systems would include connections to reefer units and liftgates for monitoring status and maintenance.
The two companies have been working on Utility Connect for more than two years, the company founder said, adding they were focused on the best solution—not being first to market. Utility wanted Phillips to develop a system that was easy to install and that would not slow down trailer production.
“We all know how busy the trailer manufacturers are now,” he said. “They don’t have space to have anything get put out in the year because it’s not working right or missing components.”
Because Phillips Industries is the standard wiring harness supplier for Utility Trailer, upgrading to the telematics version of its existing harness can be done without slowing the trailer production rates. All connections of the Utility harness are soldered, and connections are over-molded.
“Our team also worked with Utility and our mutual customer, Hirschbach, for Utility’s first large-scale installation of the Smart7 system,” he said. “Hirschbach now has more than 1,200 Utility refrigerated trailers in operation with the Smart7 telematics and has placed an additional order for Utility refrigerated trailers to be delivered in 2022.”
“Phillips has been an excellent partner to Utility and its dealer network for the last 40 years,” Steve Bennett, VP of Utility, said in a press release. “Utility Connect components, such as the Smart7 nosebox, the Utility Connect wire harness, and accessory items such as door sensors and cargo sensors are available at Utility Trailer dealers throughout North America.”
Phillips offers ELDs trailer backup vision solution
Almost every car built today has a backup camera display on the dashboard. But most trailers, which can seat drivers up to 60 feet from the back of their trailers, still don’t offer that technology. For safety reasons, Phillips said he wants to change that.
He showed off BackupVision, his company’s trailer backup camera, which comes in wired and wireless versions, depending on the trailer door. The 180-degree camera feed can display on the truck’s ELD or driver’s Android or iPhone. The system also offers image capture when paired with a Phillips Connect gateway.
ELD providers will be offered the software development kit for free to add this option to their ELD solutions package. “The idea is that we’ll give them something that they can sell to their customers,” Phillips said. “We’re only in the hardware business for this.”
Phillips said he plans to meet with many ELD providers about it at TMC. He said the software can be added to most devices in two weeks. “As soon as you go in reverse, it’s going to pop up on your ELD display, which is really different. We’re not looking to make any residual from this, but I think it’s a great product, and it needs to get out there for safety reasons.”
New smart nosebox continues beyond GPS
Phillips Connect also unveiled three new smart nosebox GPS gateways during its press conference, the day before TMC’s opening exhibition on Monday at the Orange County Convention Center. Phillips said the technology could be retrofitted on current trailers or spec’d on new equipment to provide trailer telematics benefits and provide ROI.
The Smart S7 Swiveling Nosebox, Smart Q-Box, and Smart iBox are advanced cellular gateways, GPS trackers, and sensor hubs that deliver total awareness of trailer location, status, and critical trailer conditions to the cloud. All are equipped with a Phillips Quick-Change-Socket (QCS2) Sta-Dry 7-way connection requiring no additional harnessing or electrical connections.
“We’re packing technology into the standard nosebox, which makes it really easy for retrofit,” Phillips said at TMC. “A standard hole pattern applies to all these products so there’s no need to do a lot of rework.”
Integrated sensors include GPS location, tractor power, ABS PLC data such as VIN, fault lamp status, and trouble codes. Additionally, data from various external sensors are available through Bluetooth LE, GPIO, and an extendable RS485-based Phillips Connect PCT Bus.
“We’re really integrating Phillips Connect and Phillips Industries together to have a really powerful option,” Phillips said. “We’re not in the GPS—I don’t want to say this every year, but I always say, we’re not just in the GPS tracking business. There’s so much more than that. We’re talking smart trailers and adding a lot more than just ‘where’s my trailer.’”
Phillips said that the Smart S7 swiveling nosebox offers additional cost benefits to fleets. The swivel feature, developed by Phillips Industries a decade ago, allows cables to follow the movement of the truck when the truck/trailer combination has to maneuver into tight spaces, creating a severe angle between them. This can result in damage to the trailer-side connections. The Smart S7 swiveling nosebox handles a turn of 80 degrees (40 degrees left or 40 degrees right) before automatically disconnecting the electrical connection.
The new gateway devices introduced at TMC operate on the Connect1 platform, which gives fleets advanced management of their operations by providing complete fleet analytics through personalized dashboards. With the customizable dashboards, fleets can see real-time status of an operation through custom notifications, geofences, reports, and more.
