SkyBitz, P.S.I. Collaborate on Tire Pressure Information Solution
The two are SkyBitz and Pressure Systems International, known as P.S.I., and they held a joint press event here Feb. 15 at the Technology & Maintenance Council meeting to announce their collaboration on a new product.
Their joint customers can now purchase an integrated trailer solution that assesses the tire status and the asset the tires are on and sends the information through SkyBitz InSight, a Web application that provides a real-time view of the trailer and the cargo status along with location information.
This year, P.S.I. will be used on more than 1 million trailers globally, including China, said Al Cohn, director of new market development and engineering support for the company. Meanwhile, SkyBitz has 800 customers using its product on 280,000 assets globally, said the company’s vice president of sales, John Higgins.
Before the two firms joined forces on tire maintenance, a warning light was the only way a driver could know that pressure was low on a trailer tire and that the P.S.I. system was adding air, Cohn said.
“Up to this point, that driver has to notify maintenance that that light came on during his trip,” Cohn said.
“So what we did,” said Higgins, “we got together and talked to the folks from P.S.I. and said, ‘How can we help you solve the problem of relying on that driver to provide that information back to the maintenance team in a timely fashion.’ ”
Now, with the collaboration, when the light goes on, the SkyBitz application captures information about the trailer and can transmit the information to a carrier’s dispatch, maintenance or any other department, Higgins said.
