Knowledge is power: telematics on the seven seas, on rail and on the road

Not only reactive…

In addition to all that passive data capture, smart telematics also allow you to intervene the second an alarm is triggered. Take bananas, for example. Even a few degrees can mean the difference between a shipment that will end up on supermarket shelves, or an overripe shipment that will have to be thrown away. With smart telematics and the right reefer machinery, the risk of that happening is reduced as one can react. The moment the temperature inside the container is diagnosed to likely go outside the acceptable range, a message is triggered. If conditions are not recovered within a set time, an alarm will be triggered. Thanks to smart telematics’ two-way communication, you can intervene and course-correct, protecting your shipment and ensuring your bottom line stays intact.

Conversely, the same functionality allows you to respond to changes in the market. Let’s stay with bananas. Normally, you’d want to ship them at say +13°C, to prevent them from ripening during the journey. That way, they can stay on the shelves longer. But if there’s a big demand for ripe bananas, the temperature can be turned up slightly, so they can ripen a little bit faster and look more appealing to the customer once they hit the shelves.

…but also proactive

But that’s only reacting to problems. The real power of telematics lies in the power to proactively avoid having those problems at all. All the data that are collected allows you to understand exactly how your unit or genset is performing. The moment you notice a drop in performance, however slight it may be, you can dive into the data and carry out preventative maintenance to avoid a breakdown down the line. As the amount of data you gather increases, so does your insight into the performance of your fleet. Curious to know how much energy one of your older containers is using? Is the container costing more money than it’s generating? Is one container or genset not being used while another one is performing overtime? What is the genset’s fuel level and battery voltage level? All of that is trackable. Data turns into information; information turns into knowledge. And as the saying goes, knowledge is power.

Quality of life improvements

The benefits of telematics don’t stop there. Even in the day-to-day operations of your fleet, telematics can make life easier. They allow you to do remote pre-trip inspections and health checks, so you no longer have to manually boot up every container you have, but can do it with a single click from the comfort of your desk while sipping a hot cup of coffee. In fact, remote operation is a throughline. All of the data collected by telematics can be consulted remotely, anywhere, anytime.

Want to unleash the power of telematics in your marine fleet? Contact your dealer.