ANDLAUER TRANSPORTATION SERVICES

Background

Founded in 1991, Andlauer Transportation Services (ATS) provides a one-stop shop for effective and efficient transportation and distribution of pharmaceutical products. Today, with a network of 23 facilities and hundreds of vehicles, ATS is one of Canada’s largest and most reputable provider in a temperature-controlled healthcare transportation industry. With a commitment to the highest quality standards, it is the mantra of ATS to find a better way to service each of its varied customers.

Challenge

Many ATS customers rely on the trucking company to transport temperature-sensitive goods over long distances. With the introduction of new legislation for the transportation of pharmaceuticals, ATS required a solution that would allow them to monitor real-time temperature and location information on their refrigerated trucks carrying pharmaceuticals to ensure the timely delivery of undamaged goods. Quality control hinges on the availability of temperature information for many ATS customers and is, therefore, vital to consistent customer service.

ATS turned to Fleet Complete to provide a comprehensive fleet management and GPS tracking solution that would ensure the legislative requirements of their pharmaceutical customers were met appropriately.

Fleet Tracker MGS 200 with a temperature sensor

Solution

Fleet Complete deployed Fleet Trackers with temperature sensors to provide a solution that Fleet Management can use to monitor refrigerated vehicles in real-time.

Each of the ATS’ refrigerated vehicles is fitted with an MGS 200 fleet tracking device, which is integrated with full temperature management, alarm notification, reporting and storage capabilities. Information from the on-board systems is sent to the main dispatch centre over a wireless network. The solution covers the entire delivery process of goods from the warehouse to their various destinations.

Before leaving the warehouse, the goods’ temperature readings are carefully captured and recorded. Once on the trucks, the temperature of the goods continues to be monitored using both, wet and dry temperature sensors. The dry temperature probes collect the temperature of the vehicle environment, while the wet temperature probes collect real-time temperature status of the actual goods. A self-contained refrigeration unit installed on the trucks ensures that the vehicle is kept cold even while the engine is off.

Temperature rule configuration

The temperature of the actual goods depends on a number of criteria, including weight, density and packaging. The wet sensor is encased in a tube filled with glycol, which reads the ambient temperature of a packaged product.

Any time the truck’s back door is opened, an alarm is sent to the monitoring centre at ATS headquarters to notify personnel of the event and warn them to closely monitor the temperature of goods.

All information from the sensors is recorded and stored in a database for at least seven years. Storing this data is of particular importance for ATS’s pharmaceutical customers. Having access to the breadth of information, collected by the sensors, helps them to ensure that when their goods arrive at their destination, they meet all quality requirements and are safe for use.

„Having access to on-board information for monitoring and reporting purposes is a strategic differentiation point for the trucking company, giving them a strong competitive edge versus competition.“

– Lore Quist, Regional Fleet Complete Consultant

Benefits

The Fleet Complete GPS and temperature tracking system provides ATS with a significant return-on-investment in two distinct ways. First, ATS is able to use the real-time, location-based vehicle information to monitor the efficiency and operations of the fleet; and second, to provide a service to pharmaceutical customers that meets all legislative requirements and guarantees the safe arrival of the product at their destinations.