Ryder offer RydeSmart trucks
One way to secure the safety of ship-borne freight containers is to lock them with tamper-proof locks, monitor the inside of the container for any changes and disruptions, and use GPS to track them all the way from port of origin to port of destination; Ryder now brings the same idea to monitoring the company’s fleet of 160,000 vehicles; these measures will go some way toward improving the safety of food supplies carried on these trucks from field to store
Miami, Florida-based Ryder System, a provider of transportation and supply chain management solutions, has entered into an alliance with Teletrac and Cingular Wireless to launch RydeSmart, an onboard telematics technology aiming to improve vehicle uptime, driver efficiency, highway safety, and cargo security through real-time tracking of customer fleet operations. RydeSmart has more than 160,000 vehicles in its fleet, and it will combine them with Teletrac’s integrated global positioning system (GPS), wireless data and micro-chip technologies, and Cingular’s wireless data coverage area, to create a digital wireless data network availability in 13,000 population points and along some 40,000 miles of major highways.
Miami, Florida-based Ryder System, a provider of transportation and supply chain management solutions, has entered into an alliance with Teletrac and Cingular Wireless to launch RydeSmart, an onboard telematics technology aiming to improve vehicle uptime, driver efficiency, highway safety, and cargo security through real-time tracking of customer fleet operations. RydeSmart has more than 160,000 vehicles in its fleet, and it will combine them with Teletrac’s integrated global positioning system (GPS), wireless data and micro-chip technologies, and Cingular’s wireless data coverage area, to create a digital wireless data network availability in 13,000 population points and along some 40,000 miles of major highways.
RydeSmart is a compact hardware and software unit that is installed into a truck and connected to the vehicle’s existing computer and diagnostics systems. The unit continuously monitors the vehicle’s location, mileage and speed, as well as other performance and diagnostic data. That information is communicated every fifteen minutes and on-demand, as necessary, via a dedicated and secure connection with the Cingular network to fleet operators’ desktops.
Following an initial pilot now underway in a limited geographic area, RydeSmart is expected to be expanded to customers across North America in multiple phases through 2007. The pilot includes more than 5,000 vehicles assigned to specific customers in the food and beverage, textile, and building and construction materials industries.
The tracking solution is similar to the one now used more and more in tracking ship-borne freight containers. As worries about terrorists using food tampering as a means to inflict damage on vulnerable populations, the food industry should welcome the ability to track trucks carrying food supplies from warehouses to stores.
