True or False: Reefer monitoring is only about temperature.

True or False: Reefer monitoring is only about temperature.

​Unlock new opportunities for making your job easier by understanding the benefits of remote reefer monitoring beyond temperature data.

There are many misconceptions about the benefits of automated monitoring. And questions often arise. A common one is whether monitoring more than just temperature is possible. This indicates that while temperature is crucial, there’s a genuine desire for more data, especially in busy terminal operations.

Consider these additional benefits that automated reefer monitoring can deliver. And they’re all about helping you efficiently get more done.

• Data, data, data: Beyond the current temperature of the container, consider all the other data points that are available, like set points, return and supply temperatures, humidity, CA values, USDA values, and much more. It’s all in there and available to automatically gather, store, and historically track.
• Alerts: This is critical. The ability to have alerts to changes in reefer conditions is an enormous benefit. Manual inspections could take hours to discover a problem with a refrigeration unit, and the time to dispatch corrective action could be even longer. Email and text notifications sent directly to team members who can take immediate action are essential to ensuring cargo integrity. Your customers demand this kind of attention, and automated reefer monitoring delivers it.
• Two-way communication: Receiving data from each reefer is only half of the solution. Centralized two-way access to each connected reefer for tasks such as PTI, defrost, and set point updates, the most desired function, gives you the power to manage your environment quickly and efficiently.
• Power (electrical) usage: Managing electrical expenses is a necessity in today’s world. Reefer monitoring provides an inherent tool that measures power usage for each connection point, a specific rack, or across the entire yard. This information facilitates critical cost-saving decisions like peak shaving. And the data is compiled neatly on your monitoring interface. Now that’s efficient.
• Safety: Without automated reefer monitoring, the mundane data collection tasks come down to manual inspections performed by your team members. Each event lends itself to the natural human errors of transposed numbers or gaps in data due to missed inspections, resulting in potential cargo safety failures. But more importantly, today’s busy terminal environments put machines and humans near one another more frequently, leading to increased and unnecessary human safety risks. Reduce these risks and improve insurance losses through remote monitoring of your reefer yard.
• TOS integration: Integrating collected data like location, booking temperatures, and more between a reefer monitoring system into your TOS can unleash operational efficiencies that were once mired in manual tasks, creating a faster and simpler way of managing your reefer assets.
• Data comparisons: Consider the challenges of ensuring plugging in and unplugging of reefers. Have they been plugged in soon enough? Are they unplugged before the container is moved? RTE has developed a solution for terminals to ensure the timely execution of this critical task through remote reefer monitoring. This system compares expected and actual data and generates illuminated alerts visible across the yard, boosting efficiency and preventing missed work orders or alerts.

More than temperature, consider all these benefits combined as a safety net to ensure positive outcomes. And wouldn’t that be a load off the stress-o-meter for any busy terminal operator? – but only if you understand and take advantage of them. An effectively designed and administered reefer monitoring system will get you there. RTE can help.

Allow us to understand your operating environment, and we will customize a presentation for reefer monitoring based on your unique requirements.

Schedule a demonstration of our GRASP Reefer Monitoring today and see what it can do to make your job easier.

Did you like what you just read?