Product Insight: Temperature Monitoring

Temperature controlled distribution has come a long way in the last 70 years. The first mechanical refrigeration systems were fitted to trucks in 1949, replacing thermally insulated ‘ice boxes’ and marking a revolution in terms of the road miles fresh produce could travel.

Today our refrigeration systems maintain the integrity of food or pharmaceuticals but are still prone to temperature fluctuations for example when a door is opened, so monitoring load temperature throughout a journey is crucial to ensuring that goods arrive in optimum condition.

The Product

The Microlise temperature monitoring solution provides a number of options for monitoring load temperature during a  journey – either through our own solution or through integration with an OEM or third-party refrigeration system –  providing remote visibility of vehicle compartment temperatures as well as other useful metrics including refrigerator status, and door status.

Frozen, chilled and ambient split temperature zones can be catered for within the same thermally insulated trailer and each zone can be monitored accordingly. Up to 4 temperature inputs can be processed, as well as door, fridge and defrost on/off functionality. The trailer telematics device is also compatible with both the Thermo King i-Box, Carrier Gateway/DataCold, Transcan2, Transcan Advance and the Euroscan temperature monitoring solutions.

Whether you have one or a mixture of the above temperature monitoring solutions within your fleet, information can be displayed on Microlise systems in one easy to use format, enabling effective management of temperature-controlled operations.

Once a setpoint has been established, the system can alert users if the temperature of a trailer or zone strays outside of its set parameters. As these alerts are business critical, the system will maximise user exposure by flashing a warning on screen. Additional email or SMS messages can also be sent to managers if required.

Microlise Temperature Monitoring solution holds EU Standard EN 12830 certification offering assurance that it meets legislative requirements to provide a secondary independent measure of compartment temperatures – aside from the reading taken directly from the refrigeration unit by a driver.

Where door sensors are fitted, the system will provide an alert when trailer doors are opened – when door open alerts are used in conjunction with temperature monitoring, an alert will trigger when trailer doors have been opened but more importantly, a hard alert will flag when a significant change in temperature occurs. Door sensors provide valuable data on any temperature issues and on the length of time that doors are kept open between drops and can also be used as a security feature. Should a door sensor be activated in an unauthorised area, outside a set geofence for example, the triggered alert will be one that needs to be acted upon immediately.

The Microlise Temperature Monitoring solution gathers the information required to offer your customers assurance that their delivery has arrived in optimum condition. A suite of reports are available, from trailer utilisation to journey timeline and temperature. The temperature audit report provides a graphical view of temperature readings, door open, fridge and defrost on/off duration as well as temperature alarm events for vehicles over a selected date period.

The Benefits

You’ll always know the status of your temperature monitored loads – both in real time and historically – allowing you to make immediate decisions, gain a broader overview of performance to implement continuous improvement, remain compliant and offer your customers an improved level of service.

The limitations on the movement of fresh produce have been broken down, piece by piece over the years – from early ice boxes through to refrigerated trucks. Microlise Temperature Monitoring is simply the next step in that evolution, allowing you to better manage your refrigerated fleet and ensure chilled and frozen goods are delivered to your customer in peak condition.

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If you'd like to find out more about our Temperature Monitoring solution, please contact your account manager, or contact one of our experts today to find out more.