Trailer Tracking Comes of Age

Schneider National may have validated the technology that makes it possible to locate and track trailers unhooked from power units in announcing at the end of April the deal to retrofit much of its fleet of 43,000 trailers with a product developed by Vantage Tracking Solutions.

Untethered trailer tracking is expected to become a mainstay of the truckload sector, but only recently have all the parts of this "next-generation" technology come together in a sufficiently attractive package.

That is what Schneider was waiting for, said Paul Mueller, vice president of communications technology for the Wisconsin-based truckload giant.

Cost has come down, reliability is being established and the product is ready, according to Mueller's assessment. Schneider and Vantage Tracking announced the retrofit deal in May (5-3, p. 5). Vantage is a Herndon, Va., business unit of Orbcomm Global, which in turn is partnership a partnership owned by Orbital Sciences Corp. and Teleglobe Inc. of Canada. Orbcomm operates 28 satellites in low-earth orbit to provide data messaging services worldwide. It wasn't until the launching in 1998 of this particular flock of satellites that Vantage had a product to sell.

With the capability of closely monitoring the whereabouts of trailers and the condition of the goods they contain via the global-position-finding satellites, Schneider expects to "reset the bar" in the way it manages its trailer fleet.

"We will be more effective with the trailers that we do have," Mueller said.

Asked if that meant Schneider would be able to shrink the size of its trailer fleet, he replied: "We may be able to avoid acquiring new trailers."

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