Do I have a service problem? Whenever a fault code is triggered or a telematics alert goes out, it’s one of the first questions fleet managers have. Telematics systems are evolving to present information more actionable—providing guidance in the form of prescriptive maintenance—as opposed to alerts that don’t give you much direction. The onus of determining if there’s a service issue, however, is on the OEMs and suppliers as much as it is telematics companies that provide connectivity.

“I don’t think people want raw data because it’s so difficult to understand what’s actionable and what’s not,” said Matt Wilson, general manager of the controls business unit for trailer commercial vehicle systems at Hendrickson. Wilson is on the front lines of the rollout of the Hendrickson Watchman advanced wheel-end sensor technology for trailers. The initial product offering will include trailer tire pressure monitoring, wheel-end temperature and wheel-end vibration data that will be communicated to the fleet through the tractor telematics system pulling the trailer.

“One of the things that we are focused on is using our microcontroller to be able to make some decisions like trying to identify edge events that are true warning,” he said.

Being able to deliver that equipment insight means Hendrickson has to deliver the right data to the telematics service providers. To learn more about how the technology works, the supplier’s role in the evolving field of trailer telematics and how fleet managers can reap the data-driven rewards, I connected with Wilson to learn more. Watch the video above for all of his insight.

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