SkyBitz is tackling visibility inside trailers with a new volumetric sensor to provide remote monitoring of trailer capacity in real time. The company also announced a new partnership with Omnitracs. Both announcements were made this week at the American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference and Exhibition in San Diego.
The volumetric sensor is equipped with a camera that provides clear images of the inside of the trailer. The images are transmitted back to the SkyBitz SmartTrailer ecosystem, providing management with photographic evidence of the available capacity inside a trailer. The solution provides volumetric calculations for total cubic space as well as total floor space.
“Volumetrics data is critical to line haul customers that experience freight discrepancies such as load capacity issues, damage claims or theft,” Henry Popplewell, SkyBitz president, said. “Integrating this camera to our SmartTrailer ecosystem allows customers to identify exact cubic space and capture crystal clear images of freight, eliminating discrepancies that can lead to millions in lost revenue.”
According to SkyBitz, use of this information can assist customers in improving their packaging for more efficient transport, as well as quickly identifying and rectifying issues such as damage claims.
The device can be mounted on a loaded or unloaded trailer, with full installation of the entire system in under an hour, SkyBitz said. Images of the freight and any volumetric data are captured and viewable through the SkyBitz asset tracking portal InSight, along with other contextual telematics data. Images can be captured based on the door sensor trigger, either on-demand or via a user-defined parameter through the portal and are available for use in transport management systems from the SkyBitz cloud, or by importing the actual images into the customers’ system.
SkyBitz’s new partnership with Omnitracs will make trailer visibility and scheduling tools, in-cab fleet management solutions, and other data available across platforms in a consolidated format to expedite development of analytics and automation processes.
The partnership allows customers to access both in-cab and trailer telematics devices, compiling the data received from the driver, vehicle, customer assets and back-office systems for total visibility across the entire value chain.
“Our commitment to the customer begins with the development of innovative solutions that drive more internal efficiencies, which in essence translates to revenue growth and improved customer satisfaction,” Popplewell said. “Our partnership with Omnitracs will help customers better utilize more advanced tools across their entire supply chain, regardless of whether they are optimizing their driver and dispatch operation or their asset management environment. This technology will improve their internal operation so they can focus on providing the best external experience for their customers.”
Customers will benefit from in-cab telematics and trailer telematics units communicating directly with each other, providing both drivers and back-office personnel immediate verification of tractor-trailer connections and enabling real-time data sharing between systems. Additional driver, vehicle and asset management tools will be available.
“Through the SkyBitz partnership, Omnitracs is furthering its commitment to working with industry-leading partners to provide paramount solutions to our customers and the market at large,” Ray Greer, CEO at Omnitracs, said. “Integrating SkyBitz trailer tracking solutions with our fleet capabilities allows us to continue to focus on the open platform strategy of Omnitracs One and the consolidation of data within the platform across the value chain.”
