Tracking your truck isn’t enough. To surround your truck and embrace the benefits of full asset visibility, it’s important to invest in a trailer tracking solution that provides granular asset visibility and integrates with your existing telematics. Over the course of this past campaign, we explored the benefits of transforming your trailer into an IoT platform and investing in trailer tracking. Here’s a brief recap of all the topics we covered.
Increase Your ROI by Investing in AirFinder Everywhere
- Loss Prevention. Reduce the amount of loss that occurs during the supply chain process
- Location Coverage. AirFinder Everywhere uses a combination of GPS, Cellular, and WiFi to determine location everywhere
- Security Alerts. Know when a delay in shipment has occurred so the problem
can be addressed immediately.
The Importance of Having a Smart Trailer
Why do you need a smart trailer? Smart trailers are mundane trailers outfitted with IoT infrastructure in order to provide increased visibility and control to trucking and logistics operations. This increased visibility and control enables further benefits, such as improved preventive maintenance, reduced operating costs, reduced loss and theft, and much more. Having a smart trailer provides these benefits in a way that is unobtrusive, even going so far as to integrate with telematics systems for ease of access.
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Where There Is a Need for Trailer Tracking in Logistics Operations
Logistics operations span across the entire supply chain, from manufacturing to storage to distribution and beyond. When discussing the need for trailer tracking, many assume that it can only be applied to the transportation and distribution stages. However, the correct trailer tracking system can provide much needed visibility across the entire supply chain and help reinforce chain of custody.
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How to Successfully Implement GPS Tracking
GPS tracking systems provide real-time tracking and data insights that logistics operators can use to improve their daily operations. The data it provides leads to improved efficiency, productivity, safety, and cost savings, but implementation can be daunting. It’s important to carefully follow the ten steps for successful implementation to make the most out of your GPS tracking system.
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Trailer Tracking 101: Everything You Need to Know About Tracking Solutions
Trailer tracking often gets conflated with telematics, its far more well-known cousin. However, these systems are not directly related beyond providing visibility to different aspects of trucking and logistics operations. Trailer tracking serves as a supplement to telematics, not a competitor; both are designed with different goals in mind. It’s important to understand the unique benefits that trailer tracking brings to the table and how it works alongside existing systems.
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How GPS Asset Tracking Prevents Left Behind Pallets
Many logistics companies are making an effort to transition to reusable pallets in order to save money and reduce environmental impact. However, this effort is only so effective when pallets are left behind and cannot be located or retrieved. Fortunately, GPS asset tracking provides a solution that helps companies retain visibility of their pallets and retrieve them when they’re lost or left behind.
How to Connect Your Unpowered Assets with Asset Tracking
Telematic systems provide visibility and connection for powered assets during the transportation process, but they are not designed to provide the same visibility and connection for unpowered assets without a supplementary system. Trailer tracking and other asset tracking systems help fill in those gaps, as they are powered independently and not reliant upon being plugged into a running truck to operate.
Your Guide to Meeting Tank Trailer Compliance Regulations
All fleets have compliance requirements that they must meet in order to continue operations, but specialized trailers tend to have specialized requirements in addition to standard regulations. For tank trailers, this includes TEC effluent guidelines concerning tank cleanliness and Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) concerning the transportation and handling of hazardous materials. Trailer tracking provides a strategy for not only gaining compliance, but also maintaining a compliance record.
Is Fleet Tracking Crucial for Supply Chain Success?
Choosing a fleet tracking system can seem like a daunting task, causing many operators to ask the question of whether it’s even necessary in the first place. Supply chain excellence can only be obtained through the control and visibility that fleet tracking provides. It is fortunate, then, that the process of selecting and implementing a fleet tracking solution is far more simple than most would expect.
Is Your Trailer an IoT Platform?
Is your trailer an IoT platform, an IoT device, or a passive asset? There are five simple criteria that you can use to find out. Transforming mundane trailers into IoT platforms can help you improve visibility and control over your fleet, providing access to meaningful data that can be used to improve the efficiency of daily operations and drive lasting change for operational processes.
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Managing a Supply Chain with IoT? Here's What You Need to Know
As companies take the dive into using IoT for supply chain management, operators are often finding gaps in their IoT knowledge. To make the most of your IoT supply chain management system, it’s important to understand how sensors, connectivity, cloud computing, and blockchain come together to deliver real-time asset visibility and all the other benefits that you’re seeking.
How to Integrate Trailer Tracking with Your Telematics System
Telematic systems are not designed to provide granular visibility to trailers and their contents, only providing trailer visibility when it is connected to a running truck. However, more and more fleet managers are deeming this level of visibility necessary to ensure smooth operations. The easiest way to obtain this visibility is to integrate a trailer tracking system with the existing telematics system in three simple steps.
Is Telematics Enough to Turn Your Trailer Into An IoT Platform?
Telematics is an integral, necessary element of trucking and logistics operations, but can it transform your trailer into an IoT platform on its own? There are five main traits of a trailer that is also an IoT platform, but telematics alone can only account for part of one trait. Luckily, trailer tracking systems can provide the rest of the needed traits by simply integrating with your existing system.
What are the 5 Main Components of Fleet Management?
Although most companies choose to prioritize one over the others depending on their unique scope and challenges, it’s crucial to ensure that your fleet management strategy accounts for all five main components of fleet management. This helps ensure heightened risk management capabilities and responsiveness to disruptions, providing your company with a competitive advantage and additional benefits to everyday operations.
The Best Way to Maximize Fleet Utilization
Maximizing fleet utilization means maximizing productivity and monetary returns while minimizing environmental impact. It means that you can do more with less, driving an increase in daily capacity and overall efficiency. With four simple steps, fleet managers can identify and enact a fleet tracking strategy that can work for their company’s needs in order to gain these benefits and more.
3 Things You Can Learn By Tracking Trailer Dwell Time
Trailer dwell time is an important metric used to assess the downtime of your operations and, by extent, the uptime and overall productivity of your operations. By tracking the dwell time of your trailers with an advanced trailer tracking system, you can obtain crucial data points that can help you make informed decisions about usage forecasting, day-to-day scheduling, contract negotiations, and more.
How Yard Management Increases Uptime
Trailer tracking shouldn’t start and end on the road; instead, it should start and end in the yard. By using trailer tracking systems to improve yard management, yard managers can manage inbound and outbound flow, optimize the yard’s layout, and isolate trailers that require repairs or downtime. This leads to a more effective process where operations are streamlined and resources are utilized to their fullest.
Does Telematics Fleet Tracking Impact Compliance?
Telematics fleet tracking helps keep track of compliance for regulations like driver behavior monitoring, HOS compliance, and necessary data reporting and documentation. That being said, telematics is not designed to extend visibility to the trailer and its contents, so it needs to be supplemented with trailer tracking to uphold compliance for detailed chain of custody, temperature monitoring, tanker cleanliness, and more.
The Risks and Rewards of Edge IoT Platforms
Edge IoT platforms are networks of interconnected devices where collected data is processed close to the data source, allowing for faster processing and reduced power consumption. As IoT grows in popularity in industrial spaces, edge IoT is becoming a popular choice for many companies. With its own unique advantages and disadvantages, only you can answer whether it’s right for you.
The Role of Cargo Tracking in Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management is all about knowing where your cargo is at and where it’s going next. With this in mind, it’s not a surprise that cargo tracking is considered such an important tool at all stages of the supply chain. Proper cargo tracking ensures that all stakeholders remain apprised of the movement of cargo and that any disruptions can be addressed before they escalate and reach the customer.
What's In My Trailer? The Benefits of Container Tracking
Answering the question of what’s in your trailer requires a tracking system that can provide visibility on a sub-trailer level. The right system should tell you exactly what pallets, containers, and products are on a given trailer and what condition they’re in. Tracking containers also provides additional benefits in the form of helping prevent theft and loss, improving utilization, providing transparency for customers, and more.
The Trailer Tracking Device You Need for Supply Chain Management
Many companies utilize AirTag or standard GPS technologies as trailer trackers to help manage their supply chain. However, neither of these technologies are best suited for trailer tracking. Apple’s AirTag is a consumer device that is not designed to meet the needs of large scale, commercial use cases; GPS alone is effective for monitoring location, but uses a lot of battery power. Luckily, AirFinder Everywhere is designed with commercial use in mind and leverages GPS alongside additional technologies that help preserve battery life.
Top 5 Reasons to Use Asset Tracking for Toll Awareness
Toll roads are designed to provide efficient transportation between destinations, but as they grow in popularity and the locations they connect grow in population, these roads are becoming increasingly congested. This means that officials are attempting to streamline toll road operations in a way that can make it difficult for logistics companies to ensure they’re complying with tolls and paying the correct fees. Asset tracking may have an answer.
Every Location You Should Be Tracking Your Trailer Dwell Time
Dwell time can occur at any stage of a trailer’s journey. Whether it’s expected or unexpected, it’s important to maintain reliable records of that dwell time and also to respond to it as it occurs. Fleet managers and other logistics professionals need to remain apprised of dwell time at the terminal facility, warehouse, fuel and truck stops, weigh stations, and more in order to truly retain visibility and control over their operations.
The Best Way to Maximize Trailer Security
Throughout its journey, every trailer runs the risk of security breaches. Whether these breaches manifest in the form of trailer theft or cargo theft, they result in not only loss of money, but also a disruption in operations. Necessary solutions include high-quality locks, secure parking and storage, and surveillance cameras. Trailer tracking systems can also provide added security through movement and tampering alerts, with location tracking increasing the chance of stolen assets being recovered.
The Difference Between Commercial Trailer Tracking Systems and AirTag
Some trucking and logistics companies are attempting to use Apple’s AirTag as a trailer tracking system, but they are quickly discovering that the device falls short. This is not a fault of the device, which is designed for consumer use cases rather than more complex commercial use cases. It’s important to understand the difference between AirTag and commercial trailer tracking systems so you can make an informed investment decision.
8 Key Features to Look for In Your Reefer Monitoring System
Reefer monitoring systems are necessary components of cold chain operations, allowing companies to uphold and prove compliance with regulations dictating the temperature and handling of perishables. But not all systems provide the same benefits; or at least, not all systems provide the same benefits with the same level of effectiveness. There are eight key features that you should look for when making your choice.
How to Address Delivery Issues with Cargo Tracking Devices
There are eight core challenges that can cause disruption when delivering goods from point A to point B. Each of these has their own impact, ranging from loss of revenue and reputation to legal and safety concerns. Cargo tracking devices can serve as an all-in-one solution for all of these challenges, helping fleet managers to build a safe, reliable delivery process.
Do Fleet Tracking Systems Build Supply Chain Resilience?
A resilient supply chain is one that can respond quickly to both minor and major disruptions in a way that minimizes their impact. This way, companies can avoid loss of revenue and reputation and instead move on with regular operations as soon as possible. Fleet tracking systems serve to strengthen a supply chain’s resilience, helping enable informed decisions and even predict disruptions before they occur.
How You Can Surround Your Truck
If your trucking or logistics operations are in need of a strategy to gain complete visibility of your trailers, cargo, and other portable assets and equipment, Link Labs’ AirFinder Everywhere might be the solution for you. We help you transform your trailer into a platform that reports the location and condition of your assets based on your specifications, providing room for scaling and additional applications in the future. If you want to learn more about how you can surround your truck with our asset tracking solution, book a demo with our experts today!
