Preventative Maintenance Via Asset Tracking
We spoke to Greg Vaccher, Senior Sales Manager, at BlackBerry Radar about some fascinating use cases of asset tracking, including being part of a preventative maintenance strategy
We all know that preventative (proactive) maintenance can extend the life of the equipment that serves as the lifeblood of the transportation and logistics industry. Ensuring that everything from trucks to trailers is in good working order helps reduce downtime by ensuring that every minute of operation is productive.
The same can be said for compliance and regulatory considerations. When a fleet’s vehicles are compliant, they can hit the road as and when needed, rather than needing to be grounded pending an inspection.
To help industry players ensure their fleets are always compliant and available for booking, BlackBerry Radar, a division of Waterloo’s BlackBerry LTD., has developed an asset tracking system that can ensure all your powered and non-powered assets are always safe, certified, and ready for the road.
CITT recently spoke with Greg Vaccher, Senior Sales Manager, at BlackBerry Radar to talk about how their asset tracking system gives companies a clear layer of visibility that can help them proactively manage compliance across their fleet.
"One of the ways in which BlackBerry Radar can really deliver value, is in helping companies move from being reactive to proactive with their safety and maintenance”, Vaccher said. “Making that shift can have a real impact on some of the challenges that can arise when companies maintain a reactive position. Without visibility of all your assets, you’re increasing the risk of accidents, potential injuries, and your safety score as a carrier can be impacted.”
According to Vaccher, when a carrier’s safety score suffers, it can have an impact not only on a carrier’s reputation, but their bottom line as well, since many cargo owners will only do business with carriers that maintain safety scores that are in line with their own targets. What’s more, falling out of compliance can result in hefty fines and a drop in revenue when assets are rendered unusable.
“There are fines associated with not being compliant. Also factor in that when an asset like a trailer is down for non-compliance, it’s producing zero revenue,” he said. “Now you’ve also got drivers sitting around and you’re looking at a zero-revenue situation.”
In addition to a balance sheet, Vaccher pointed out that non-compliance can affect client relationships. “If you have an asset that’s parked for non-compliance you might be missing customer expectations, commitments, or contractual obligations. Your brand could be impacted, and you might even lose business due to the age and state of repair of your assets. As we all know, a lot of companies will require your trailers to be of a certain age and in certain state of repair.”
How the BlackBerry Radar solution works
BlackBerry Radar’s offers an intuitive tracking system that lets logistics companies apply labels and tags to assets of all types that are connected through the company’s proprietary technology and devices.
“What we offer is a way to tag ‘inspection-due’ or ‘inspection past due’ labels to all your assets”, Vaccher explained. “Then you can run those assets through our Open API so when it hits your yard, or some other defined area, you’ll get an alert that says not to let that asset leave the area, until it’s been serviced. As opposed to a time-based solution, we can base everything on mileage data. We’re actually giving you the true mileage on where each individual asset has been. Real, accurate data.”
Transparency leads to immediate ROI
According to Vaccher, the result of this data tracking and alerts is a strong ROI that can be recognized immediately, thanks to better visibility of all your equipment.
“With enhanced visibility comes the ability to utilize your equipment better,” he said. “You’ll be saving money on maintenance and repair costs, with less downtime.”
What’s more, as a partner, BlackBerry Radar makes it a priority to undersand the business of each of their customers and innovate new ways to solve their problems.
“Within BlackBerry, we work with all asset types and carriers, from chassis to all modal operations. Terminals to long haul, even rail. We’ve got a very dedicated and passionate engineering team that loves hearing about a customer challenge and going ‘all-hands-on-deck’ to solve it in as short a timeframe as possible.”
From where we stand, enhanced compliance along with safer vehicles, trailers and assets is always a good thing. We’re excited to see where BlackBerry Radar takes this innovative technology next.