Has Anybody Seen My Trailer?

 BY JOHN D. SCHULZ

Practically every major truckload shipper has gotten the call from the harried dispatcher. Do you, uh, perhaps know where our trailer is? No, you respond, I thought you would. After all, you're the trucking company. 

Now a high-tech solution may prevent such embarrassing calls. Vantage Tracking Solutions, a unit of Orbcomm Global L.P., is testing what it calls a "breakthrough solution" to the age-old problem of tracking trailers. 

The new trailer management solution has three key components that allow carriers to collect, communicate and process data on their trailer assets. Such data collection is common in the trucking industry for its cabs, but so far has not been utilized on a wide scale for trailers. 

The Vantage tracker and integrated sensor suite installed on the inside of the trailer collects location and status data and receives demands from the dispatcher. One of Orbcomm's fleet of 28 low-Earth-orbiting satellites transmits the data. Then a message analysis and delivery system collects and processes the trailer data and integrates that information into a carrier's fleet management system. 

Trucking companies can then use this real-time information to offer enhanced services to shippers. Carriers get operational benefits such as improved asset utilization, improved detention management, reduced cost of errors from faulty trailer information and reduced losses from theft - not to mention saving those embarrassing calls to shippers asking whether their trailer is at the shipper's dock. 

"We have taken a systematic and value-driven approach to developing our trailer tracking solution," said Donald Thoma, general manager of Herndon, Va.-based Vantage Tracking Solutions. "We've worked closely with some of the nation's most respected carriers to understand the real problems of trailer management. We have built a system that addresses those needs, is cost effective and delivers measurable bottom-line benefits." 

Vantage officials claim the cost of such benefits will pay for the system in less than 18 months. The hardware cost to install the one-foot-by-two foot system is $500 dollars per truck, with another $12 to $15 per-truck cost in service fees. 

Vantage currently has "dozens" of trailers outfitted with the devices in field tests with several large carriers. Thoma declined to name those carriers but said they included some of the largest carriers in the truckload sector. Tests will continue throughout the first quarter of 1999 and commercial deployment is planned for next spring. 

At first, Vantage is concentrating on the dry van truckload sector. It plans to offer a refrigerated trailer product later next year as well as a tracking system for international markets. 

"Trucking companies aren't interested in partial solutions or technology for its own sake," Thoma said. "They want a system that works anytime, any place and most importantly can be integrated seamlessly into their business processes - and that's what we'll deliver." 

Vantage breaks out the cost-benefit analysis this way: 

• Savings in excess trailers utilized - 70 cents per trailer per day.
• Savings in cost of dispatching for lost trailers - 68 cents per trailer per day.
• Savings in lower cargo theft claims - 22 cents per trailer per day.
• Savings in improvements in obtaining trailer status - 20 cents per trailer per day.
• Savings in detention management - 15 cents per trailer per day.

Vantage has worked with Atlanta-based Scientific Atlanta, a supplier of communications networks, to manufacture the communications package called the Vantage Tracker. Scientific Atlanta already works with the rail industry to provide similar trackers in rail cars used to haul autos. Right now, Vantage said it wants to stay "focused" on the trucking industry. 

"The trucking industry has very focused needs," Thoma said. "We're trying to do what's necessary to deliver value on the trucking side. We've built the tracking system the trucking industry has demanded - one that performs in all operating scenarios and improves productivity and profitability. We're confident we're the right trailer management solution for the trucking industry." 

Although Vantage declined to name which truckload carriers are using the devices in field tests, Thoma did say that Wabash National, a leading trailer manufacturer, is involved with the installation of the devices in some new trailers. Wabash is a leading supplier to Schneider National, the nation's largest truckload carrier, as well as many other top truckload concerns. 

While carriers bring their fleet of tractors in for routine maintenance regularly, a trailer can go for years on the road without it ever being at the home office. Vantage officials claim its reliability is strong, including a five-year lead acid battery unit that costs $50 to replace. 

"This is a pretty rugged device," Thoma said, claiming it can be installed in under two hours. Its placement at the top and middle of the front of the trailer is designed to avoid being punctured by overzealous forklift operators who have been known to puncture holes in the sides of trailers at times. An antenna device is placed neatly in a half-inch box atop the outside of the trailer so that a unit can still fit neatly through the 14-foot underpasses common on the highways. 

"It's almost counterintuitive, but now carriers have to at times contact their customers to find out where a trailer is," Thoma said. "They won't have to bother their customers any more."