Third-party logistics service providers
(3PLs) that contract with those smaller fleets may have no choice but to
rely on a driver to enter temperatures
into a smartphone app at each stop, a
dicey approach if drivers are traveling
in areas with spotty cellphone coverage.
As an alternative, shippers and retailers
are increasingly doing the job themselves by attaching a physical temperature sensor to their pallets, he says. That
device allows shippers to monitor the
load’s conditions throughout its journey,
although it may not interact directly with
a carrier’s platform.
To close those gaps in data monitoring
and information sharing, Lineage plans
to launch an online portal this year that
will give its customers greater visibility
into shipments in transit. Still in development, the system would monitor temperature conditions and automatically
send an alert if a load grows too warm,
Bryan says.
Another new approach to boosting
cold chain visibility entails improving
the platforms that run on the handhelds
and smartphones that often serve as a
driver’s only link to his fleet, according
to Will Salter, president and CEO of
Paragon Software Systems Plc, a U.K.-based routing and scheduling software
vendor. Paragon now offers a work-flow management product that runs on
drivers’ Android-based handhelds and
allows them to receive instructions on
deliveries, such as changes to times or
locations. As each driver checks the temperatures on the truck—a single vehicle
may have multiple sections spanning
chilled, ambient, and frozen—he or she
can record the data; the system will then
automatically generate reports on when
the driver reached delivery locations and
dropped off loads.
Io T AND BLOCKCHAIN ENTER THE
PICTURE
Whether they deploy temperature sensors
or phone apps, companies can choose
from an array of products designed to
help keep tabs on temperature-sensitive
cargo. A number of players in the market
already provide cold chain monitoring
equipment to measure temperature in
transit or in storage, then commu-
nicate that information to trading
partners.
But most of those systems fail to
track shipments through the com-
plete supply chain, including man-
ufacturing, inventory storage, and
distribution, according to Jai Suri,
senior director, product manage-
ment, Io T Cloud for the Redwood
Shores, California-based enter-
prise software vendor Oracle Corp.
Instead, they collect tracking infor-
mation from separate sources, he
explains. However, because the data
from those disparate sources isn’t
