Trailer Tracking Options: Finding the Right Tool for the Job

First, a story. One of our trailer-tracking customers had a trailer stolen from the yard – and we were able to ping it to a rural location. Upon investigation, though, the police found the location to be surrounded by a fence, overgrown with plants and apparently unopened for a very long time. We kept pinging the trailer tracker – and it kept showing, with a high degree of accuracy, that the trailer was definitely at that location.

So the police surveilled the location – and soon discovered that the thieves were carefully moving the vegetation aside when they brought in stolen trailers, and then putting it back in place. The thieves were busted, and the trailer – along with others – were recovered.

Trailers at Risk

The moral of the story? Trailer at rest are trailers at risk. You may have heard this old adage as “cargo at rest,” or perhaps “freight at rest” – but regardless of the wording, theft of trailers and/or their cargo remains a serious issue, and poses losses of tens of millions of dollars annually.

And yet, while trailers at rest are at risk, so too are trailers in motion. Risky driver behaviors like hard braking, hard cornering, and excessive speed can all put a trailer and its cargo at risk – as can excessive temperatures, or a loss of power.

Fortunately, options exist for fleet managers to deal with trailers at risk, whether that risk is at-rest or in-motion.

Trailer Tracking: You Have Options

Our basic trailer tracking module reports its location on a daily basis, giving you peace of mind that your trailers are indeed where you think they are. And they have a long battery life – five to seven years is typical. And when the battery starts to get low, you’ll get an alert so you’ll have time to deal with any issues ahead of time. And because they have built-in antennae connecting them to the existing 3G cellular network, you’ll have coverage everywhere that your mobile network is available. It’s an eminently suitable solution for fleet managers who only need basic information on trailer location.

Trailer Tracking Pro: Increased Safety, Reduced Costs

For fleet managers who need or want more, however, our Trailer Tracking Pro solution not only provides location assurance, but also a wealth of information on trailers in motion – and when used in conjunction with CyntrX’s advanced reporting capabilities, can be leveraged to gain increased efficiencies and ROI.

Our pro module reports on events like hard braking, hard cornering, and overspeeds, which is important on two levels. First, these kinds of events tend to be leading indicators of unsafe driving – and armed with the reports on these behaviors, fleet managers can take preemptive action that lowers accident rates and thereby increases driver safety as well as helping to prevent damage to trailers and cargo. And secondly, correcting these behaviors almost universally leads to an increase in fleet fuel efficiency – thereby reducing the single highest cost center in fleet operations.

The location-based capabilities of the Pro solution are also enhanced over the Basic option -- the module reports the trailer location once per hour, for example, instead of once per day. And because our Pro solution also has geofencing capabilities, fleet managers will also be alerted whenever a trailer enters or leaves a predefined area or route. That’s handy information for any fleet manager: Not only will you know when a trailer leaves the yard, but you’ll also be kept informed if it leaves its proper route, and again once it reaches a geofenced destination.

The battery in the Pro module is also rechargeable, and in fact is drawing on vehicle power any time it’s hooked up – saving battery life for its hourly location reporting whenever it is not hooked up to vehicle power, but also waking up to tell you whenever its begun to move. And because the unit can operate on 4G LTE, it has the range and power inherent to those networks, helping to ensure connectivity across the country.  

Finding the Right Trailer Tracking Solution

Which trailer tracking solution is right for you? The answer, of course, depends on your fleet and your particular needs. If you’re a current trailer tracking customer, reach out to us to find out how the Pro solution can extend your current capabilities. And if you’re completely new to trailer tracking, feel free to contact the CyntrX team and we’ll be happy to talk about your needs and help you figure out which solution is right for you -- along with any other fleet tracking or management challenges you might be facing.

Regardless of your situation, you can check out our trailer tracking solution spec sheet – and know that whether your trailers are at rest or in motion, CyntrX has you covered.