Victoria based Quality Transport Refrigeration Services (QTRS) is to use Software AG’s Cumulocity IoT platform to monitor refrigerated food trucks throughout Australia.
QTRS has developed its own telematics system, Mitsi Track, for Mitsubishi vehicle mounted refrigeration units to provide detailed, real-time information on unit performance.
It uses the data gathered to improve proactive and predictive maintenance and control and claims to have saved customers millions of dollars by preventing spoilage of perishable cargo resulting from temperature variations on board the vehicles.
QTRS managing director Daniel Oxley-Boyd said the system represented an industry first for the amount of data it obtained in real-time from vehicle refrigeration units.
“It’s a real differentiator and gamechanger for our business and we have had strong interest from manufacturers of the refrigeration units to expand the solution into Europe and New Zealand.”
QTRS’s telematics engineer, Michael Cassidy, told IoTAustralia QTRS had initially build a system comprising hardware and software in-house, but realised it did not have the resources to bring the system to market.
“When we wanted to scale it and bring it to customers we just we just didn’t have the capability. So Software AG came to the rescue That was about 18 months ago when we started an extended trial with Software AG in Germany.
“We developed on that with some trusted customers and got to the point where were ready to start selling so we contacted th Australian arm of Software AG and got our own instance of Cumulocity.
“We’ve had customers using the product for about 18 months but it has only just become an official product available for sale.”
Cassidy said the system was designed to provide functionality in excess of traditional telematics.
“Our ultimate aim is total asset [monitoring]. We’re taking a little bit of CAN bus [a protocol for data communications in vehicle technology] but that’s just the start. And we’re also looking at doing trailer monitoring as well.
“We’re looking at small asset tracking modules that you could seed into random boxes in trailers to test the temperature distribution inside boxes in trailers, or to test the temperature distribution in the trailer.”
Market opportunity for Software AG
Tony Drewitt, Head of IoT ANZ, Software AG, told IoTAustralia the company saw a market opportunity locally for this kind of monitoring locally and was looking to diversify the markets it addresses with Cumulocity.
“We did quite a bit of research and saw this as a standout compared to the competition out of Europe where they are producing really quite basic data and have been for some time.
“That’s where we see the future in Australia: food production, food manufacturing and processing, and providing an audit ability across the supply chain.
“That’s absolutely where we want to position ourselves. We have several large customers in that space and we’re involved in some research projects in that space.”
The company is also eyeing other verticals locally for Cumulocity, Drewitt said.
“We’ve got some pretty cool solutions coming out soon in the building management space: smart campus and smart building areas.
“We’re looking to recruit specialists in those areas. We’re very good at software but we’re not experts in managing buildings.”
