Sunset Pacific Transportation Gains Real-Time Visibility with Fleet Management
Sunset Pacific Transportation, headquartered in Chino, Calif., is a general commodities truckload and less-than-truckload carrier. The employee-owned company operates a fleet of nearly 150 trailers nationwide.
Situation
A decade ago, Sunset Pacific realized the need for trailer tracking technology to eliminate the theft of trailers, especially in drop lots, and began testing various trailer-tracking options. However, as Sunset Pacific President Taylor Little recalls, the carrier wanted to have tracking information in real time, and the providers then did not have that capability.
Solution
Enter SkyBitz. In 2006, Sunset Pacific installed GLS 200 units throughout its fleet of trailers – and gained up-to-the-minute visibility to every unit.
Now, in the event that a trailer in lockdown mode is tampered with, the SkyBitz unit automatically goes into “panic” mode, sending location information to the Sunset Pacific Operations team every three minutes until the issue is resolved.
Little says he appreciates the world-class service that he receives from the SkyBitz Customer Care Team. “If we ever have an issue, they immediately jump on it.”
Results
In 15 years, Sunset Pacific has only had a few trailers stolen, but as Little puts it, “one stolen trailer is too many.” Since the installation of the SkyBitz trailer-tracking technology, the company has not had any issues with theft. Sunset Pacific is also placing “Protected by SkyBitz” decals on all of its trailers to further deter trailer tampering and reduce the chances of losing cargo.
In addition to the security benefits, the carrier has enjoyed a substantial increase in equipment utilization.
“We have large customers where we drop trailers at their locations all over the country, and we used to have to manually look for those trailers,” explained Little. “With SkyBitz, we can easily generate reports and know exactly where every trailer is at all times. We don’t have trailer shortages anymore.”
The SkyBitz technology has also made yard checks much simpler to conduct from a desktop computer.
“Normally, a product doesn’t deliver on all of its promises, but the SkyBitz GLS 200 works the way it’s supposed to and that’s unusual in the marketplace today,” said Little.
