Temperature-sensitive freight

It monitors the temperature of the freight being carried and the drive train of the refrigeration system. Refrigeration units have numerous sensors for this, and some systems also record driving behaviour such as cornering or braking. In the solution example, a telematics controller sends the values to Cumulocity. The service partner can thus detect a failure, diagnose the problem and contact the driver in real time.

Because cooling failures usually happen during transport. Large supermarket chains require full traceability of their products from the field to the shopping trolley. If the cooling fails, the supermarket can reject the delivery, which means losses running into thousands of dollars for growers or shippers. Real-time data from the refrigeration unit makes the temperature history of the entire journey verifiable.

It provides proof that the goods were kept at the right temperature throughout. In the solution example, a supermarket in Perth wanted to reject a truckload of strawberries because of a temperature deviation. The driver called customer service, which quickly used the telematics data to prove the temperature had been correct. The supermarket had to accept and pay for the load, saving the grower a loss of 180,000 dollars.

It combines alarms for faults with plannable maintenance. The Australian service provider in the solution example introduced automatic service intervals with a notification as soon as maintenance is due. If ice forms on the evaporator during loading on hot, humid days, Cumulocity automatically triggers defrosting based on defined temperature limits. The result: failures of refrigeration units were avoided and spoilage of freight was prevented.