Tracking the Forgotten Asset

Using Technology to Improve Trailer Management

Organizations are using telematics for much more than track and trace on their trucks these days; they are maximizing productivity and efficiency by tracking their full fleet.

If you’re only monitoring the activities of your trucks, you aren’t monitoring the other vital half of your operations. Tracking isn’t just for trucks anymore — you now can effectively track your trailers.

It makes good operational and economic sense to keep tabs on your trailers since they are integral to your operations. Unfortunately, for many fleets, trailers are forgotten assets. But they shouldn’t be.

Advances in telematics technology mean fleets can install the same level of tracking technology that is available in their trucks. This allows fleet managers to know exactly where a trailer is in the yard or on the road.

More Than Just Location Tracking

As any fleet manager who oversees a trucking fleet knows, there’s more to managing a trailer than where it is.

Fleet managers need to know its work status — has it dropped off or picked up a load, how many stops has it made on a given day? They need to know its operational health — are there any maintenance issues that need to be addressed? They need to know how productive it is — how many hours has the trailer been used in a given week, month, year?

Telematics can answer all of those questions at a touch of a button and according to the precise needs of the fleet.

Telematics technology can do even more — particularly for fleets that need additional security or the ability to monitor the temperature of its reefer trailers. With telematics tracking, fleet managers can monitor if their trailers are properly secured, protecting valuable cargo or equipment from thieves, and, in the case of reefer trailers, that the temperature is correct for the perishable items being transported. Any change in status results in an alert, giving the driver and fleet personnel the opportunity to correct the change in status and make adjustments or alert authorities — in the case of a theft — immediately.

Increase Productivity to Feed Your Bottom Line

As an asset in and of itself, fleets need their trailers to be productive — that means knowing where it is, if it’s being used and if it’s in tip-top operational condition. Trailers are also the means by which a truck fleet generates revenue. Not having this important revenue-generating tool running at optimal efficiency will mean the fleet is not being a means to feed the company’s bottom line.

There are three common productivity challenges for trailers that could be affecting your business’s profitability:

A

Trailers are spending too much time at customer sites or sitting unused in your yard

A

Valuable time is being wasted while drivers locate trailers in yards, ports, or other customer sites

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Unorganized maintenance scheduling is causing unscheduled trailer downtime

Read this blog to learn more about how to use GPS trailer tracking to optimize productivity by solving these challenges.

Why Do You Need To Track Trailers?

If you’re considering implementing telematics to improve your trailer management, ensure to choose a solution that can solve all your challenges.

Asset Utilization

Yard Location

Preventative Maintenance

Asset Classification

Temperature Monitoring

Verify Stop Location

Using trailer tracking that goes beyond just locations will help solve all your trailer management challenges for complete fleet intelligence.

Scaling for the Future

No matter your level of experience with telematics, it’s likely you’ve seen operational and revenue benefits from installing a telematics solution on your trucks. If you’re more experienced with telematics, you’ll know how important it is that you find a solution that can be configured to your needs and, more important, is scalable and can grow along with the size and the changing operational realities of your fleet.

With the availability of cost-effective trailer tracking solutions, there is little reason why trailers should remain the forgotten asset, and, instead, be top-of-mind as your fleet fulfills its daily mission to serve its customers.