One challenge is to seamlessly get many sensor-driven components supplied by various component manufacturers to work together in a single system within a trailer.
One challenge is to seamlessly get many sensor-driven components supplied by various component manufacturers to work together in a single system within a trailer.
One challenge is to seamlessly get many sensor-driven components supplied by various component manufacturers to work together in a single system within a trailer.
One challenge is to seamlessly get many sensor-driven components supplied by various component manufacturers to work together in a single system within a trailer.
One challenge is to seamlessly get many sensor-driven components supplied by various component manufacturers to work together in a single system within a trailer.

Why trailers need to become smarter

Oct. 6, 2017
Rob Phillips, president and COO of Phillips Industries, will tell you that trailers can no longer be an afterthought in the trucking industry.

Rob Phillips, president and COO of Phillips Industries, will tell you that trailers can no longer be an afterthought in the trucking industry.

With cargo thieves targeting loads with higher values, the need for more security is growing. With e-commerce helping to both increase freight demand and at the same time placing new business pressures on truckers large and small, trailer uptime is becoming more critical.

There’s also a productivity issue to be addressed as well when it comes to trailers – especially in cases where a truckers mistakenly hooks up to the wrong trailer in a crowded freight yard and hauls it 400 miles down the road before realizing the error.

Those, then, are just some of the many trailer-related issues Phillips expects new technology to help solve in the near future – technology that will on the one hand provider greater security for both the trailer and its cargo, while at the same time producing more detailed “real-time” data to make trailers more productive assets.

For a complete discussion with Phillips on the changing needs and expectations of trailer users, see the full story on American Trucker.

About the Author

Sean Kilcarr