Santa Fe Springs, CA - During a press conference held here today in conjunction with the American Trucking Associations’ Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) Annual Meeting & Transportation Technology Exhibition, Phillips Connect Technologies (PCT) detailed their product and telematics data communication roadmap for 2020.
The new PCT products introduced during TMC follow Phillips’ proven criteria as a world-class hardware supplier known for building innovative products that solve real-world commercial fleet issues. In today’s smart-trailer technology environment, fleets are most interested in the intelligence that comes from their investment in transportation equipment. PCT’s products satisfy individual fleet requirements, based on their unique operations, by receiving IoT sensor information in the most efficient format, under one data plan.
PCT hardware products unveiled during the press conference included:
Smart7 expands on Phillips’ most popular trailer nosebox by adding powerful solar to the lid, a large-capacity battery, and an ABS decoder chip. It also includes PCT’s telematics gateway for GPS and communicating and reporting on multiple health sensors like light out detection, door open/closed, tire status, cargo status, air tank and trailer tail status, SmartLock Gladhand status, tractor pairing, and weight status. And on top of all of that, the Smart7 has PCT’s patented remote Pre-Check feature built-in.
Pre-Check Smart System, functioning through the Smart7, it allows fleet operators to run a diagnostic on trailer status from a remote location. With the ability to view the trailer's health remotely, fleet operators can dispatch healthy assets and reroute flagged assets for scheduled maintenance.
IntelliSense Harness System, an integrated 7-way smart harness that allows multiple sensors to connect to PCT gateways. A data communication harness is woven into the trailer’s main harness to speed up installation time and improve reliability.
SmartLock Gladhand prevents unauthorized use of trailers by preventing the secure connection of the tractor air line supply to release the brakes. The sensor will allow the carrier to have the power to say who can and can NOT use their asset.
SmartPair makes tractor/trailer pairing extremely easy. When the asset is attached to tractor power, the SmartPair will immediately start looking for nearby sensors. Any tractor with the SmartPair will be picked up by PCT’s tracking products. Multiple layers of logic are included when making the pairing—so if more than one tractor is present, the right tractor is paired with the trailer.
Products created by PCT are designed to operate in an open platform, that can interface with non-PCT telematics gateways and with any supplier sensor, or with PCT supplied sensors or a combination of both.
PCT’s User Interface and ROI tools were also outlined. The User Interface is a user-friendly environment displaying a dashboard of fleet assets, giving the ability to narrow in on asset data in order to diagnose components and sensors. PCT discussed the release of a new advance query tool that can be used in mapping, reporting maintenance scheduling, and can be optimized for messaging and alerting, customized to the individual fleet.
“Our product development criteria provide solutions that offer a massive ROI and competitive advantage to our customers,” commented Rob Phillips, CEO of PCT. “Trailer tracking and sensors are what everyone is talking about right now, but that’s just a tiny piece of what’s really going on. The most important piece of this pie is not, ‘Where are my assets?’ or, ‘What is their status?’, it’s what the collective data reveals that’s gold. This is our specialty; we have figured out the ultimate formulas to build customized strategies for each fleet customer.”
Phillips Connect Technologies will be introducing additional new telematics-solution products throughout 2020.
