Many dealers count pharma companies and distributors among their clients. And those that do will fully appreciate why the industry cares so much about precision. Of being able to know with confidence the condition of loads being shipped, and the environment they’re being moved in.
Which is why engagement with a potential customer can often begin when something’s gone wrong.
Take for example the contact Henk Lammertse (General Manager at the TK dealership Transportkoeling in Rotterdam) received on an exceptionally cold night in March. A call from a company transporting temperature sensitive medication, and who were in desperate need of help.
A costly mistake
As Henk recalls, the call came in on a Friday evening, after the customer had spotted a problem with the temperature data. Throughout one specific journey that day a trailer’s condition had never made it above 0°C – despite the load requiring a temperature ranging from 15°C to 25°C.
As a result the entire batch was lost.
Not that it took long to uncover the problem. As Henk explains: “crazy as it may sound, none of the temperature control units were actually running. For whatever reason the driver had simply forgotten to turn them on!”
Calling in the experts
Determined to never have the problem happen again, the client asked for a meeting: dealer expertise was again being called upon to both determine and the problem and find the solution!
As Henk was quick to point out, “once we’d met it was obvious their biggest problem was visibility”.
Analyzing the situation, Transportkoeling demonstrated that the existing 3rd party temperature tracking solution was only showing the temperature – not the status of the control unit or temperature set-point.
Inspired visibility
To deliver the fix, Transportkoeling proposed an integrated approach with sensors sending data back to a TK BlueBox device – which then transfers this information to the central TK TracKing platform.
As a result the client can now view things like unit and temperature status, from one easy-to-access location.
Or as Henk puts it, “the client now has the ability to monitor their fleet, look for data that’s out of the ordinary, and instantly call a driver to address any emerging issues”.
Building on success
What does this story tell other dealers? Well, it’s certainly worth noting that:
- Connected Solutions of this type will soon become an established standard in pharmaceutical distribution
- Recent GDP guidelines make tracking load temperatures a growing requirement
- Providing this level of visibility is a key way to stand your dealership out from the crowd
As Peter Willems, Sales Manager at Transportkoeling suggests: “as regulations tighten we’ll see more transport companies installing this kind of system”.
Extending the benefits
It’s also worth keeping in mind that many of your customers will want to stay in front of their competition. That means thinking one step ahead, and integrating data into their back-end tower control systems to give fleet managers full view of both vehicle and refrigeration unit data.
To this should also be added the benefits that Connected Solutions bring about by enabling you to offer customers’ a more proactive service. Capabilities that begin when you’re able to:
- Equip your service vans with separate telematics systems
- Use these to send teams to wherever a problem is detected from customer data
- Analyze historical data (error codes etc.) to prevent possible issues in the future
