Total has joined forces with French company Sigfox to deploy a solution designed to optimize rolling stock and help manage trailer fleets.
Solution
Created by transporters, for transporters, Where’s My Trailer? is an innovative new way to improve how trailer fleets are used and kept secure.
The solution works by installing a box on the trailer, enabling transporters to identify equipment that is underused or has been lost or stolen.
Process and Partnership
The solution was developed by Total Marketing France through its affiliate Stela and has been tested for the past year by the company’s transporter customers.
Benoît Luc, Total’s Senior Vice President, Marketing & Services, Europe.
“Sigfox technology, together with our familiarity with freight and logistics activities, has given us the opportunity to offer a reliable and efficient way of geolocalizing rolling stock throughout Europe,” explains Benoît Luc, Total’s Senior Vice President, Marketing & Services, Europe. “It’s a first step that is driving us forward in our broader ambition to take greater advantage of the Internet of Things for the benefit of our transporter customers.”
Patrick Cason, Managing Director of Sigfox France.
“We’re delighted with how the Total project has developed,” adds Patrick Cason, Managing Director of Sigfox France. “Total’s size has in no way hindered our progress; in fact, quite the opposite. We have seen how its full force can really serve innovation. Total listens to its customers, thinks about their user experience and is committed to providing innovative services. Our teams worked together very easily, because Total both responds and makes decisions promptly.”
How It Works
The boxes are self-powered and very easy to install on the trailer. They communicate using technology developed by Sigfox, with which Total has formed a global partnership, via a low bandwidth connection network at a very low cost.
Where’s My Trailer? localizes stationary trailers and allows users to set up notifications. Messages are displayed on the secure customer portal, which can be accessed from the websites stela.fr and as24.com, and are compatible with all digital devices.
Maps and dashboards provide information on:
- Trailers and logs of inactive periods.
- Tractor-trailer pairing: drop-and-hook detection.
- Maintenance: vehicle safety inspection and repairs.
- Unauthorized movement during time periods that can be configured by the customer.
Screenshot of the Where’s My Trailer? customer portal
How To Access The Service
Where’s My Trailer? is easy to deploy and use, and is very competitively priced in the transportation market. This solution marks the end of high costs and complex systems. Benefiting from Sigfox’s services and international network, this disruptive solution both significantly reduces costs and simplifies the system’s implementation, unlike current solutions that are complex to deploy.
It will be available from July 9, 2018, first in France and then across Europe, through Stela and AS24. There will also be a hotline open five days a week, to help customers install their boxes, use the secure portal, and configure their options.
Where’s My Trailer? is a subscription service, free to download.
The solution is scalable and will soon add new features.
