Focus on cargo temperature monitoring

Tracking a Movable Feast: How National Food Does It

5 September, 2013 / Jason Hall / No comments

National-Food_Home
Photo courtesy National Food Corporation

Based in Everett, Washington, National Food is an egg and egg products production and distribution company. To economize its egg delivery service, its transportation department also offers for hire truckload and LTL (less than load) transportation services of refrigerated and dry freight to other food companies throughout the Pacific Northwest.  “In doing this, often if not always, we transport a variety of products that are being delivered alongside our products”, said David Harbour, Transportation Projects Manager at National Food.

Because of this diversity of product that National Food transports, the temperature monitoring solution David’s team picked isn’t used as advertised. At Webtech Wireless, we promote temperature monitoring as a solution that enables fleet managers to know through real-time alerts if temperature thresholds in trucks and trailers are being reached. While this is valuable information for National Food, they’ve opted out of the real-time alerts and focused instead on the benefits of reporting.

How National Food does it

For National Food, it’s all about reporting. “We have less need to know what’s going on in real-time than to have the reporting capabilities after the fact”, said David. And after-the-fact reporting is how National Food saves thousands of dollars in otherwise lost revenue. A shipment can run around $40,000 to $50,000, and I can think of at least three instances where temperature reporting saved us a lot of money. If a client claims that a shipment was spoiled, we can produce reports that show it didn’t happen on our watch”, said David adding, “It saved our bacon.”

Looking Forward to the New WT2250

WT2250 by Webtech Wireless“We already have three WT2250 Locators installed and plan to upgrade 28 trucks with the WT2250s as well”, said David. He mentioned some of the new features he’s looking forward to having with the new WT2250 Locators. “The WT2250 Locator sends a temperature report with every record, so in addition to the GPS location information, I know what temperatures my reefer trucks are recording”, said David. He goes on to mention the rugged build of the new WT2250s, “The antenna is built in, so there’s no separate accessory and one less fail point”.

With configurable timed reporting intervals and detailed reports show temperature history and readings exceeding thresholds, David and National Food have much to look forward to as they continue to deliver eggs and other food products to their customers—efficiently and cost effectively.

National-Food_eggs

Temperature Monitoring – What’s the Right Flavor for You?

4 July, 2013 / Jason Hall / No comments

 

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Don’t Let Your Profits Melt Away

There’s probably nothing sadder than a small child crying over an ice cream cone that melted before he or she could finish it. In the grow-up world, it’s a different kind of sad for a fleet manager to lose an entire truck load of frozen ice cream on route to market—it’s an expensive sad.

Choose What’s Right for You

Depending on the types of vehicles you’re using and your temperature monitoring needs, Webtech Wireless offers two distinct solutions: The WT7000H+ Locator for straight trucks, and the WT2250 Locator for trailers. With either, this sets you apart from your competition by enabling you to monitor the contents of your shipments on route to ensure that they travel within the required temperature specifications.

“There was a night and day difference after Quadrant was deployed at National Foods. Quadrant is a full fleet solution with multiple areas where it can help.”
—Kevin Bookey, Transportation Manager, National Foods

Real Customers, Real Solutions

A Texas-based frozen food distributor, which prides itself in its premium best-selling ice creams, approached us in 2011 to monitor the location, temperature, and door open/close of its mixed fleet of ice cream trucks. Starting with a pilot program installed on eight vehicles, we were able to help them not only reduce content spoilage and monitor its straight trucks and trailers, but having real-time visibility into its vehicles also helped prevent cargo theft as well. By trying out the solution as a pilot, the company was able to certify success before rolling it out to all trucks in the fleet. Webtech Wireless then worked with certified installers to bring fleet GPS tracking to monitor its ice cream for the entire fleet.

Here’s what this frozen food distributor chose:

Fully certified and calibrated temperature probes ruggedized to provide sensitivity and accuracy to be aware of critical temperature swings that could ruin product.

Quadrant Manager Mobile for iPhone, iPad, and Android gave their fleet managers the same mobility to check temperatures and vehicle locations while they themselves are on the road.

Temperature reports set with unique location-based profiles (geofences) enabled fleet managers to identify temperature ranges and distinct thresholds for daily operations and weekend storage.

Automated driver logs, which perfect for fleets that operate in multiple states or jurisdictions. Our award-winning fleet management Quadrant solution supports automated driver logs, ensuring compliancy with the latest HOS (Hours of Service) regulations.

Refresh Yourself

Whether you need to update an older temperature monitoring solution or step up to a GPS fleet tracking solution for the first time, you can expect to reduce unnecessary spoilage and save costs with a Webtech Wireless solution that truly fits your needs.

Contact us today. Don’t let your ice cream melt. Call +1 (866) 287 0135 (Option 2) to discuss your fleet challenges and how our GPS/AVL solutions can help you today.

Cargo Temperature Monitoring Helps Reduce Hunger

13 September, 2012 / Jason Hall / No comments

Vladivostok, Russia may seem a long way away from America’s heartland, but a summit being held there points to a shared concern—food security. As Russian President Vladimir Putin put it, food security “is one of the most acute problems of our time.” So while Asia-Pacific summit leaders are focusing their attention on the rising concern over food security, a new report by the US Department of Agriculture states that 17.4 million American families (almost 15 percent of US households) are now “food insecure”.

What is The Local Face of Hunger?

Did you know that a staggering 40% of all food produced in the United States is wasted? Of that, 20% is wasted through spoilage during distribution (i.e., transportation).  But food spoilage can be reduced, if not eliminated through better temperature tracking during transportation.

Detail from Next Generation Food infographic

 

Monitor Your Trailers and Prevent Waste

At Webtech Wireless, our GPS/AVL tracking solutions help trucking fleets reduce all kinds of waste: fuel wastage, time wastage, and food wastage. By providing you with the ability to monitor the contents of your shipments on route, you ensure that perishable cargo travels within the required temperature specifications. With status updates sent to you remotely, you are assured that you are part of the solution, not the problem. It’s that simple: Monitor your trailers and prevent waste.

September is Hunger Action Month

Many people assume hunger is supposed to happen in other places, yet hunger is a reality in the most plentiful of nations. According to Feeding America, a Chicago-based food bank network, one in six Americans goes hungry. Among its charitable activities, Feeding America food banks provide food and groceries to 33,500 food pantries, 4,500 soup kitchens and 3,600 emergency shelters.

Feeding America is promoting many programs to help including online donations, a “Give a Meal” program, a virtual food drive, and corporate donations. Find out and view their “Map The Meal Gap” study. Remember, September is Hunger Action Month.