As trucking companies become more data-driven, the trailer is an underexploited area from which to derive insights.

But that’s changing with the evolution of the smart trailer, which is becoming increasingly sensor-laden and capable of helping fleets make smarter and faster decisions. Smart trailer technology was the theme during a roundtable discussion at Hendrickson’s recent media day, themed ‘Beyond Suspensions.’

Mark Wallin, general manager and senior vice president, Phillips Connect, said smart trailer technologies can be beneficial to a range of fleet decision-makers. Whether it be real-time tire pressure information that’s communicated to the driver before a failure occurs, light-out detection systems that can help a mechanic prevent on-road violations, or location and load status that operations can use for dispatch.

“All that data is being collected. The part that makes it smart is when you bring it all together to create insights for stakeholders,” Wallin said.

Data must be actionable

But Lawrence Bader, now retired as UPS’s global fleet systems director, said the data being pulled off trailers is only useful if it can be acted upon.

“The data points that are valuable are the ones you can take action on,” he said. “Actionable data, produced from insights, in the hands of people who can take action on them. When you put them into action, that’s where the meat is.”

Lights, brakes and tires make up the majority of mechanical issues on trailers, so sensors that can help monitor the health of those systems are invaluable, Bader added.

Jason Theis, fleet maintenance manager, trailers, with Anderson Trucking, said his company has effectively slashed its tire violations by adopting Hendrickson’s Tiremaax Pro tire inflation system.

‘Massive reduction’ in CSA violations

“We saw a massive reduction in our CSA violation scores,” Theis said, noting the fleet rolled the system out across its trailers last year. “Underinflated tires were the number one thing we faced. We saw a massive reduction right away in out-of-service violations.”

Running the correct inflation pressure is always important, but even more so of late since enforcement agencies have begun utilizing AI to check tread depth and inflation pressures as trucks roll over sensors embedded in the ground at weigh stations, Theis added.

The technology has also resulted in efficiency gains at the shop. When the trailer comes in for service, mechanics can determine tire inflation pressures at a glance. And because Tiremaax doesn’t just report pressures, but maintains them, it allows the fleet to limp back to the shop in some instances after picking up a puncture.

Future brake sensing opportunities

Tire inflation pressure has already been addressed by Hendrickson. In the future, the company plans to be able to provide similar insights on brake wear. That, according to Matt Wilson, vice president and general manager of vehicle technologies group with Hendrickson.

“The next big fish for us is brake wear,” he said. “It will probably be a couple of years before we have commercially available brake sensing, but we have some really cool ideas on what that may look like.”

When calculating a return on investment on smart trailer technologies, Bader urged decision makers to consider not only the repair costs incurred by a breakdown, but also the impact on the driver and customer.

“It’s hard to put a price tag on it,” said Theis. “We have a maintenance group that’s looking at it from a maintenance perspective. Operations is looking at it for dwell time – how long has that trailer sat in a yard underutilized? What does the downtime of a trailer cost when it has a flat tire?”

Theis said a roadside tire failure costs the fleet about $690 – only half of that is attributed to the tire itself. That’s where the ability to limp back to the shop can be invaluable.

Potential just beginning to be tapped

The full potential of smart trailer technologies is just beginning to be tapped, said Phillips Connect’s Wallin.

“Just five years ago, the idea that a smart trailer knew its location was popular,” he said. “Now there’s demand to know more. The next phase is, how do you make those into insights? How do I create smart experience sin the right hands?”

Asked for a specific example on how a fleet has improved its operations through smart trailer technologies, Bader spoke of one that owned thousands of trailers, many of which sat for 60-90 days unused. It was able to create alerts when a trailer hadn’t moved for a certain number of days and improve its asset utilization.

Anderson Trucking was able to use Tiremaax Pro to detect a trend in which a trailer tire at a certain position hauling a certain type of freight was regularly failing. Turns out, the load was being improperly distributed but the root cause was identified before more tires were replaced.

Wilson said AI has the potential to help fleets get more out of their smart trailer technologies, by asking smarter questions and getting faster answers. Instead of doing manual yard checks, that individual may be able to do it all from the office and assessing instantly the availability and status of the fleet’s trailers.

They can assess the lighting system’s health before assigning the trailer to a driver.

“They’re going to sit back and say ‘How does my yard look?’ and not have to get up out of that chair,” Wilson said.

Bader said AI integration will lead to opportunities to be more predictive when it comes to maintenance, shifting from time or mileage-based maintenance schedules to those that are more conditions-based.