When the first generation of trailer tracking systems debuted more than 25 years ago, the trucking industry was changed by what appears to be among the most simple questions for a modern fleet: “Where are my trailers?”
“Today, trailer locations still matter, but it’s really about ‘what’ as much as it is ‘where,’” explained Deryk Powell, president and COO of Velociti, which custom designs, installs, maintains, and partners with a wide swath of technologies to simplify complex transportation business problems.
Through new purchases and retrofits, trailer technology providers are offering more ways for fleets to not only track their assets but also plan for the future. As supply chain challenges have made every piece of fleet equipment more precious, the new generation of trailer telematics can help fleets be more efficient and profitable.
“Next-generation systems provide insight into what is going on,” Powell told FleetOwner and shared these examples: “What is the status of my lights, brakes, tires, etc.? What is loaded on my trailers, and who loaded each of them? What is the availability of my trailers in the context of my overall capacity? What if my trailers are being detained unnecessarily? What can I communicate or export from my trailer visibility to my yard-management system?”
The list of connected trailer insights goes on and on, Powell said. “But the direction is clear that trailer management is an integral component of yard, warehouse, and transportation management holistically.”
Bringing all that data into one system
A big challenge for mixed fleets that use various brands, systems, and architectures is to adopt telematics solutions without having multiple data plans for someone at fleet headquarters to sort into actionable data.
Rob Phillips, CEO and founder of Phillips Connect, told FleetOwner that his Connect1 technology solves this problem by providing a single gateway to collect all sensor data on the trailer. “Fleets can efficiently manage and analyze telematics data in Connect1 without the need for multiple telematics solutions on their trailers or overly complicated HQ backend solutions,” he explained.
For fleets that want to protect their best technologies in order to remain competitive, a myriad of smart transportation solutions providers is adding to the complexity. How can these solutions providers keep their technologies proprietary while still helping fleets that rely on competitors?
See also: Phillips Connect nearshores 'smart' trailer tech lines
Phillips noted that Phillips Connect affiliate Phillips Industries has been around for nearly a century and has a good grasp on which technology providers are worth partnering with. “It’s a tough topic,” Phillips noted. “We have solid partnerships with many industry leaders—and we’ve had competitors that have attempted to play dirty with us by stealing our IP. Phillips Connect was founded with collaboration at the core.”
He noted that fleets want options. “That includes having the same smart-trailer solutions installed at all of the OEMs they chose to build with,” Phillips said, noting that Phillips Connect solutions can be installed through every major trailer manufacturer.
For the aftermarket, Phillips Connect has multiple smart-trailer kits that can be retrofitted to older equipment to turn a standard trailer into a smart trailer.
Partnering with the right providers
It’s also incumbent upon fleets to seek out the right technology partners, according to Ben Brown, head of trailer and digital sales solutions for ZF.
“They are going to need a variety of different sensors on the trailer to get the overall functionality that they ultimately want,” Brown said of fleets. “So I think it’s incumbent on the suppliers in the field to work together for that outcome. And, really, the fleet should be aware of that and seek out potential suitors who they feel meet that criteria. So it’s really a two-fold approach.”
ZF is looking to provide fleets with a holistic solution for new and older equipment retrofits through Scalar, its digital Fleet Orchestration Platform. Scalar offers real-time, AI-based automated decision-making and efficiency tools for fleets. It gives fleets access to critical trailer metrics through one hardware device and the Scalar user dashboard.
“Fleets can spec our product on a new trailer, or they can convert existing trailers they already have into our platform,” Brown explained. “You might need to replace your braking system in a retrofit environment, whereas if you buy new, you can stack it that way off the assembly line. So it really depends on how your fleet is."
“But the middle ground would also be playing with your fellow industry peers—who might even be a direct competitor in some cases—to allow the fleet to get the value they want,” he continued. “You need to find a positive way to have a relationship with that competitor so that the fleet still ultimately gets what they want in that overall investment.”
Retrofitting can be a great way to bring legacy trailers into one fleet user interface, Brown explained. But it is sometimes difficult to get all the advanced data from older equipment compared to newer, smarter trailers. How they move forward is about fleets making the best “educated choice” for their operations, he added.
“‘Choice’ has been a hallmark of the North American transportation industry for decades—and trailer telematics should be no exception,” Nada Jiddou, EVP and chief digital officer for Clarience Technologies, told FleetOwner. “Yet, only a handful of fleets have invested the resources needed to develop custom platforms that integrate multiple competing telematics solutions, and even they are struggling with the task.”
Hence, Clarience developed Fus1on, a new software platform that powers its Road Ready telematics. The cloud-based Internet-of-Things software-as-a-service platform is device-agnostic to integrate data from anywhere, Jiddou explained.
“This means fleets can see all of their trailers—even if they use multiple telematics providers—in one single pane of glass,” she said.
This can ease transitions in today’s transportation world, where many carriers are involved in mergers and acquisitions. “When one fleet acquires another and has two telematics systems to deal with, that fleet doesn’t have to choose between either hopping between two portals or investing the time and resources to change telematics hardware on half of its fleet,” Jiddou said. “We can easily solve this dilemma with our software.”
ROI of trailer tracking
Brown of ZF said he believes some fleets are still looking at trailer telematics from a value proposition. “I think some of them just aren’t clear on whether there is an ROI for their fleet—or maybe just a portion of their fleet that goes on certain routes needs telematics, and the rest doesn’t,” he explained. “I think that a lot of fleets are kind of in that wait-and-see mode before they commit to having this recurring expense every month.”
He added that some fleets are still testing different telematics providers to see what suits their whole trailer fleet.
While trailers are getting smarter, providing fleets with more actionable data, some important things haven’t changed for trailer tracking, Velociti’s Powell said.
“For example, two under-appreciated force multipliers for trailer tracking ROI aren’t leveraged as effectively as they should be,” he explained. “The first is deploying a solution as quickly as possible because complete visibility to the where and what of the entire fleet is critical. The second is a comprehensive health monitoring and rapid repair program to ensure maximum uptime of trailer tracking so it can be counted on at all times to deliver information that impacts the entire operation.”
See also: The tech tools for keeping track of your trailer fleet
Phillips of Phillips Connect said investing in trailer tracking can create ROI by helping fleets get a better idea of their resources.
“The fact is that having idle trailers is what is expensive, and fleets that adopt smart-trailer solutions see significant improvements in trailer utilization,” Phillips emphasized. “That’s not all, though. Fleets that adopt smart trailer solutions see improved driver utilization because they can remotely determine if the trailer is ready for pickup before they dispatch a driver, maximizing driving time and revenue.”
And Phillips stated that his current smart trailer designs keep “the distant future in mind” by prioritizing flexibility and expansion so fleets will be able to adopt new solutions as they enter the market.
“By staying ahead of the curve and adapting to the rapid pace of change in the telematics industry, our future-proof solutions meet current needs and enable the embrace of emerging technologies without significant system overhauls,” Phillips noted.
Supply-chain proofing
To keep up with—or keep in front of—recurring supply chain kinks that have slowed equipment procurement most of this decade, many carriers have upped their trailer-tractor ratio. However, that has also led to a lot more equipment to manage and monitor.
“Over the last few years, we have seen everything from global supply chain disruptions and the growth of onshoring to the rise of e-commerce contribute to a growing trailer-tractor ratio as carriers added trailers,” said Jiddou of Clarience Technologies. “Although adding trailers helped carriers handle more drop-and-hook freight and reduce unpredictable driver wait times, they have also introduced underutilized capacity.”
She said this is another reason trailer telematics should not be considered a “cost generator.” Instead, Clarience sees connected trailers as profit generators that optimize trailer utilization, according to Jiddou.
“Data from Road Ready can help fleets identify and address the factors that cause trailers to sit idle, such as inefficient routing, poor loading practices, excessive detention, or lack of maintenance,” she explained. “They can also use data-driven insights to make better decisions about trailer allocation, relocation, or leasing.”
Some fleets also use this data to rent unused trailers to other carriers. “This way, they can generate revenue from their excess capacity or save money by avoiding unnecessary purchases or leases,” Jiddou said.
