Blackberry has enhanced its Radar H2 intelligent, data-driven asset-monitoring devices to help transportation businesses reduce costs and securely improve the use of their trailers, containers, chassis and other remote assets.

With the intermodal industry facing a capacity crunch and fleets waiting for months on end to receive a new trailer due to manufacturing bottlenecks, timely and accurate data that can shed light on where a fleet manager’s assets and drivers are, and how effectively they are being used, have never been more important.

With multi-sensor reporting, the enhanced Radar H2 device expands on the core capabilities of the original to improve global coverage and connectivity to 4G LTE cellular networks and bands. The company also bolstered the short-range wireless communications protocol for connecting to sensors, adding range and stability and improving compliance with worldwide standards.

To support global operations that need enhanced cargo visibility and control of their shipments, Canadian firm Blackberry has also released the Radar R2, a wireless sensor that uses radar waves to measure cube space use inside a container or trailer, with the door open or closed.

“As countries struggle to ensure critical healthcare supplies and essential goods make it to market amid the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain efficiency and security have never been more important,” said Christopher Plaat, senior vice president at Blackberry. “With the new global enhancements to our Blackberry Radar H2 devices, transportation and logistics businesses the world over can unlock excess shipping capacity they didn’t know they had and gain better visibility into their entire fleet, both of which are vital during these unprecedented times when transport companies’ role as the lifeblood of our economy is heightened.”

Select trucking companies and private fleet operators are participating in a customer pilot programme to trial the enhancements that have been made to the Radar H2. Blackberry Radar devices are operating around the world in Europe, Africa, Asia, Middle East, South America and North America.

The online end user dashboard has also been enhanced, empowering teams to manage their assets based on the information Blackberry Radar provides. The Events 2.0 alerting system highlights events within a user’s transportation ecosystem that are important to their specific business needs, systematically combing through mounds of asset location and status data to bring forward actionable intelligence to help solve problems and drive operational efficiencies.

With Events 2.0, transportation businesses can create custom reporting dashboards using a combination of data elements – mileage, cargo status, location, geofence, asset type, asset status and time frame – to focus on key items of importance that can be monitored for, acted against and improved upon, whether it be turn times, preventative maintenance, or unauthorised and underused assets.

The easy-to-install asset monitor provides information such as location, motion, mileage, temperature, humidity, door open or closed status, and cargo status on an intuitive on-line dashboard. It collects more data than conventional GPS-based track and trace and uses this information to build a 360-degree visualisation of a user’s assets. All data are transmitted and stored securely on a cloud platform, which maintains the privacy of user information at all times.