A smart trailer is a system of sensors that communicate information about that trailer back to the fleet, and they’re becoming increasingly useful every day.
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Here is a transcript of the video:
Smart trailers are making fleets, well, smarter. But the term is relatively new.
It’s safe to say that most fleet managers are used to the capabilities of truck telematics, but they may not be as familiar with trailer telematics, which are newer, but are starting to catch up to the capabilities of their tractor telematics brethren.
At the end of the day, it’s about cost. In the past, OEMs weren’t looking to integrate the sensors from the components of the trailer until there was a clear ROI that is present for the fleets.
While it may seem simple to connect sensors to any number of functional items, conditioning those signals into something meaningful takes cost and effort. And if these signals don’t predict failures, the ROI just isn’t going to be there for some time.
But, the times they are-a changin’, and today’s smart trailers not only demonstrate far greater ROI than even just a few years ago, they’re more capable than ever.
To tell us more about this smart trailer revolution we’ve found ourselves in, I’ve invited Matthew Leffler, vice president of trailer solutions for the smart trailer sharing platform vHub, onto the show.