Phillips Connect introduced three new smart nosebox GPS gateways during a press conference held in conjunction with the TMC ’22 Annual Meeting and Transportation Technology Exhibition. Retrofittable or specified on new equipment, the new Phillips Connect Smart noseboxes transform trailers into managed assets that provide telematics benefits.

The Smart S7 Swiveling Nosebox, Smart Q-Box, and Smart iBox are advanced cellular gateways, GPS trackers, and sensor hubs that deliver trailer location, status, and critical trailer conditions to the cloud. All are equipped with a Phillips Quick-Change-Socket (QCS2) Sta-Dry seven-way connection requiring no additional harnessing or electrical connections.

Integrated sensors include GPS location, tractor power, and ABS PLC data such as VIN, fault lamp status, and trouble codes.  Additionally, data from a wide variety of external sensors are available through Bluetooth LE, GPIO, and an extendable RS485-based Phillips Connect PCT Bus.

The Smart S7 swiveling nosebox offers additional cost benefits to fleets, the company highlighted. The swivel feature, developed by Phillips Industries a decade ago, allows cables to follow the movement of the truck when the truck/trailer combination has to maneuver into tight spaces, creating a severe angle between them. This situation can result in expensive and time-consuming damage to the trailer-side connections. The Smart S7 swiveling nosebox accommodates a turn up to 80 degrees (40 degrees left or 40 degrees right) and will automatically disconnect the electrical connection if the turn exceeds that angle. 

The new gateway devices introduced at TMC operate on the Connect1 platform, which gives fleets advanced management of their operations by providing complete fleet analytics through personalized dashboards.  By fully customizing the Connect1 dashboards, fleets can see the real-time status of an entire operation through custom notifications, geofences, reports, and more.