• Goodbye to twin screens: truck and trailer combined on a single screen
• Information from the load compartment: Fleetboard Trailer Data
• Transfer of position and coupling status: Fleetboard Trailer ID 

Stadtallendorf / Stuttgart – Everything on one screen: Dispatchers and fleet managers have things easier thanks to Fleetboard. With its Trailer Data and Trailer ID services, Fleetboard integrates the semitrailer and displays information about both the truck and trailer on one screen.

"Integrating all the relevant data from the semitrailer into an overall view of the combination is a major step forward," is how Christian Michalak, sales and telematics manager at the Kautetzky freight company, describes his customer benefit. "Thanks to the enhancement of mere truck management with trailer data integrated by Fleetboard, we now have an overall telematic solution for both the tractor unit and semitrailer for the first time. At last we have a comprehensive telematic system for our entire fleet, and can view all the data on one screen."

The Kautetzky freight company based in Stadtallendorf, Hessia, is one of the pioneers of trailer management, and was involved from the start as a pilot customer. Telematics already have a long tradition in the Kautetzky freight company. After an initial start with external service providers, this company specialising in the transport of high-quality pharmaceutical products and food changed over to the digital services of Fleetboard at an early stage.

Kautetzky uses Fleetboard as the basis for its entire vehicle scheduling. Particularly important features for Michalak are so-called mapping and the calculation of driving and resting times. The freight company also makes intensive use of remote data downloading from the mass memory of the digital tachograph, irrespective of the truck's location. While the transportation of foodstuffs already requires a high degree of care and safety with respect to constant temperature control and its documentation, the requirement profile for carrying pharmaceuticals is more stringent still.

"Anybody transporting pharmaceuticals shows his true expertise with considerably enhanced transport quality and the elimination of all risks," says Christian Michalak. This is where the specialist freight company is helped by its longstanding investment in systematic, telematics-assisted vehicle management.

Thanks to integration of the trailer, the company is now also able to access all the relevant data from the semitrailer without having to switch from one system to another. The previously frequently necessary changeover from the vehicle scheduling tool Fleetboard Cockpit for tractor units to the separately running trailer telematics system is now unnecessary.

Information from the load compartment: Fleetboard Trailer Data

Two different trailer services, Trailer Data and Trailer ID, have been developed for the substantial integration of trailer data into the Fleetboard system. In the Trailer Data service, Fleetboard integrates a great deal of information about the body and chassis into the Fleetboard Cockpit from the telematic system of the trailer manufacturer. Depending on the trailer telematics, this includes e.g. the exact trailer model and its position, independently of the truck.

In the case of refrigerated semitrailers, which make up the lion's share of the Kautetzky fleet, data transferred by the trailer include the status of the doors, the trailer's temperature recording and the operating mode and operating time of the refrigeration unit.

Fleetboard Trailer Data also transfers key data about the technical condition of the chassis. These include e.g. the axle loads, tyre pressures or the condition of the braking linings. All the data can be retrieved in the Fleetboard Cockpit.

Provided it is equipped with trailer telematics, the semitrailer naturally also transmits its data when it is not coupled to one of the 50 or so Mercedes-Benz semitrailer tractors. "This is indispensable for end-to-end documentation of our transport quality," says Michalak. While Kautetzky has also worked to this quality standard in the past, "the difference from our old telematics environment is that we are now able to concentrate all the facts in a single portal."

To provide the Trailer Data service, Fleetboard is initially cooperating with the telematic systems of Europe's two leading trailer manufacturers, Schmitz Cargobull and Krone. To use the service the customer must have a contract with the cooperating trailer telematics manufacturer.

Transfer of position and coupling status: Fleetboard Trailer ID

The Trailer ID service shows the position of the trailer and its coupling status. The tractor unit recognises whether a trailer is attached, and identifies it by its vehicle identification number (VIN) via the electronic braking system. The data are transferred to the company together with the data from the tractor unit, using the truck's onboard Fleetboard computer. This means that the location of the trailer is known, and at the same time there is certainty that the truck is towing the correct trailer.

Fleetboard offers the Trailer ID service for latest-generation Mercedes-Benz trucks. The electronic braking system of the trailer must allow interrogation of its vehicle identification number. No other technical preinstallation is required, saving the customer any additional investment.