Sept/Oct 2005

Trailer rental and contract hire company TIP Trailer Services is offering customers a try-before-you-buy opportunity to convince them of the management benefits of tracking trailers. It has four demonstration trailers available, all equipped with a trailer tracking system from fellow GE Equipment Services company GE VeriWise, which specialises in asset management.

VeriWise uses the low-earth orbit geostationary Spacechecker satellite network for both location and communications. TIP says this gives high-performance coverage in Europe, low-cost communications and real-time reports, with position fixes taking between three and 10 seconds.

The VeriWise tracking device on the trailer sends and receives the information to the VeriWise Web site. Operators can view asset details via the site, set up geofences and arrange for alerts to be sent to designated addresses should pre-set parameters be exceeded. All the data is in XML format for easy downloading.

There are three versions of VeriWise: Cooltrack for temperature-sensitive loads, Safetrack for high-value loads and Maptrack for basic asset monitoring. Both Cooltrack and Safetrack monitor door openings and send alerts if doors are opened outside pre-set parameters. Reporting intervals can be set to whatever the company requires, from every three hours down to every five minutes, says TIP. Data recorded can include speed, distance, stop times, idling and brake usage.