A transportation business revamped: how a cold chain fleet management solution helped increase profits

“Renew or die as a business,” says Juan Miguel Samano, CEO of Cobertura Total en Telemetria Mexico (CTTMX), a Mexican provider of innovative telematics and IoT solutions with an experience of almost 15 years. Samano believes that the IoT [Internet of Things] offers a total renewal for businesses to help them gain competitive advantage and scale. Today, companies can automate their processes, analyze risks, and create new business models and income streams using IoT technologies, such as truck tracking systems.

To illustrate how streamlined operations minimize downtime and reduce costs, Samano brings up an IoT project that CTTMX implemented in 2021. They created a cold chain fleet management solution for CCN Transportación, a leading Mexican commodities distribution company.

Real-time data wanted

For a transportation business to be effective and profitable, its fleet operations must be well coordinated and goods must be delivered in an appropriate condition. To achieve this, CCN Transportación needed to establish complete control over its vehicles and other assets, such as refrigerated boxes in trucks and stores. They also wanted to improve transportation schedule compliance and prevent profit loss.

“One of the biggest problems at CCN was the necessity to track real-time temperature in their 300 trucks and over 250 cold rooms in different retail stores across México,” points out Samano. The client asked for a solution that would allow them to monitor their operations online and manage the fleet more effectively.

A single platform for all vehicles and assets 

CTTMX developed a dedicated management platform, TRM (Total Registry Management). It is built on top of Wialon, a multipurpose IoT and GPS tracking system that was set up to gather information from the entire fleet and refrigerators in stores and display it conveniently to the user.

GPS trackers and various sensors installed on CCN’s trucks and in reefer containers collect comprehensive data, including location, fuel consumption, and temperature, and send it to Wialon. With this information, CCN’s operators can easily detect the truck’s position, estimate transport time, and optimize schedules in TRM.

As the client had a retail store network throughout México, they wanted to control the cold chain maintenance there as well. A tough challenge was to connect both moving trucks and stationary fridges in stores to a single fleet management solution. With IoT technologies, CTTMX made it possible. “Additionally, we placed door opening sensors on the refrigerators so that the client could know how many times the doors are opened and tell which products sell best. This helps pinpoint information for the marketing area,” adds Samano.

A breakthrough improvement in operations

The TRM platform made the work of the CCN staff easier, faster, and much more efficient. Now, the Traffic Department gets information about the vehicle location and its estimated arrival time. If an accident or delay happens, they receive notifications and can promptly take adequate measures and adjust the schedule. Having full details of the fleet’s daily performance and deep-level reports, operators can assess the results and consider further improvements.

The Cold Chain Department now can monitor temperature in vehicles and cold rooms in stores, ensure good transportation conditions, and detect temperature fluctuations just in time.

CTTMX integrated the TRM platform with the client’s ERP system, and this streamlined management of their day-to-day business activities.

Higher profits with better control

CCN Transportación has got additional profits from optimizing their fleet operations. What’s more, the company prevents losses from spoiled goods as proper transportation and storage conditions are ensured because of temperature control.

Having its entire fleet connected to the TRM platform, CCN now has full control over it and can make data-based decisions, perform company-wide analyses, measure KPIs, and quickly handle weak spots.

“With this comprehensive solution, the client ensures the cold chain maintenance, refrigerator upkeep, and application of best practices for employees, such as keeping the cold room doors shut. Now, they get historical data for grounded decision making and valuable information for the sales and marketing areas. Their processes have been automated and can be managed in a single platform,” concludes Samano.

Sharing the project globally

CTTMX introduced their fleet management solution internationally at IoT project of the year 2021, an annual global contest of telematics and IoT projects. The Wialon team initiated the competition with an ambition to show the diversity of areas where IoT can be used and appreciate the benefits IoT technologies bring to businesses. The best projects of 2022 will be named on October 9.