Save Fuel and Time with GPS Trailer Tracking Devices
By Carolina Ruiz • Published November 16, 2021 • 7 minute read
In this post, you’re going to know how you can save fuel, money, and time using GPS Trailer tracking devices.
In fact, using these tracking devices, Bennett Family of Companies reduced 40 hours of labor a week at approximately $25 per hour.
Let’s dive in:
Imagine your office with a control tower view of a trailer drop yard. It overlooks a fleet terminal, a manufacturing plant, or a distribution center. The trailers you see could be reefers, dry vans, flatbeds, or intermodal chassis and containers.
Truck Trailer Yard
What do you observe??
Perhaps the drop yard resembles an airport, only instead of airplanes spaced widely at terminal gates with baggage cars darting back and forth, you see drivers in bobtailed tractors passing through tight corridors and searching for trailers.
With and Without Trailer Tracking Solutions
You notice that some drivers are searching for trailers, and some know exactly where to go. The first set of drivers are slowly passing rows and reading trailer numbers. The others are entering the yard and quickly going to the right trailer, backing up, connecting, and leaving.
Drivers who are searching may have assignments to pick up a certain trailer number, but not have information about where to locate the assets. They might also be searching for trailers that have already left before someone in the office updated the dispatch records.
Drivers who know where to go, on the other hand, are working for motor carriers with trailer tracking systems. With the technology, their carriers are giving clear instructions and satellite map views of the trailer drop yard with pinned asset locations.
How to Save Fuel, Time, and Money
To save time and prevent errors, trailer tracking data should be an integral part of the dispatch workflow. When sending a dispatch assignment to a driver from a transportation management software (TMS), the message could include a trailer number with a hyperlink.
Trailer Asset Location
When the driver clicks on a trailer number, a browser could open and display a real-time satellite map view of the yard with the pinned trailer location.
Improve Trailer Driver Productivity
Making drivers’ work easier and more productive is one of many ways that fleets can increase driver job satisfaction and address the industry’s top concern.
Results from the American Transportation Research Institute’s (ATRI) annual Top Industry Issues report show, for the fifth year in a row, that the driver shortage is the No. 1 issue. The survey results come from more than 2,500 carriers, commercial drivers, and industry stakeholders.
Image source: https://s29755.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Volvo-driver-cab.jpg
The driver shortage was No. 1 by a wide margin this year, with 47.4% of the total share of votes. Driver retention and driver compensation ranked No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.
Detention and delays at customer facilities moved up two spots to No. 7 overall.
Accurately Detect Trailer Status
Geofencing and volumetric cargo camera sensors are two additional tools fleets can use with trailer tracking to minimize wasted time and fuel.
How to set Geo Fencing in Fleet Tracking Software:
Fleets can mark trailer drop yards with geofences to automatically record when trailers arrive and depart from each location. Marking locations with geofences will help to ensure an accurate inventory of assets and create time savings by eliminating manual yard checks.
Geofencing can also automate detention billing by capturing the date and time that trailers arrive and depart and improve asset utilization by identifying equipment that sits idle.
Also read: Cargo Camera Trailer Tracking – Know What Inside Your Truck Trailer
See What’s in the Trailer
Volumetric cargo sensors improve trailer management at drop yards by taking full-length, clear images. The images can be processed instantly with artificial intelligence to detect a trailer’s empty or loaded status and fill percentage. This information helps motor carriers effectively dispatch drivers and increase available capacity.
At a time when capacity is tight, volumetric cargo sensors can assist with finding available trailers, improving turn times at drop yards, and improving operational efficiencies.
By comparison, traditional cargo sensors that use ultrasonic technology are far less accurate in reporting loaded or unloaded status.
Make Smart Decisions with Smart Trailer Tracking Solutions
Fleets that use SkyBitz trailer tracking solutions can provide drivers with the exact locations of trailers as part of an integrated workflow with back-office systems. Users can access a live database of trailer status information directly from a transportation management system (TMS).
Trailer status updates immediately when trailers cross geofences, making it easy to locate assets according to status, such as “outbound loaded/empty” and “inbound loaded/empty.”
For volumetric cargo sensing, SkyBitz offers SkyCamera, the most advanced technology in the industry that combines clear cargo images with artificial intelligence to deliver accurate, timely, and total visibility to cargo status.
To learn more about how trailer tracking can help you eliminate wasted time and fuel spent searching for assets, contact SkyBitz today.
