iTECH: Fleets See Greater Productivity, Profits From Refrigerated Trailer Tracking

By Eric Brothers, Contributing Writer

This article appears in the October/November 2011 issue of iTECH, published in the Oct. 10 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

When Stevens Transport Inc. went looking for a tracking system for its refrigerated trailers, at the top of its wish list was technology that not only would send a report about problems with the reefer but also would allow the company to take care of the trouble on the fly.

“We have been seeking a provider who was capable of two-way control of the temperature settings,” said Scott Mellman, the Dallas-based carrier’s director of logistics. “Knowing that a trailer was inadvertently set at the wrong temperature was nice to know, but being able to react and correct it in real time is the key.”

Stevens Transport, No. 44 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers, currently is testing StarTrak Information Technologies’ trailer devices on 100 of its 3,500 refrigerated trailers, Mellman said. The devices, he said, provide inventory management data such as dwell time, temperature history, alerts (fuel level low, rapid fuel loss, bad sensors), reefer settings (start/stop or cycle sentry) and transport refrigeration unit (TRU) engine hours — information useful for maintenance planning.

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