WABCO is combining its expertise with Sioen Industries to combat the rising issue of trailer cargo theft incidents. ‘Detector’ is a combination of intelligent tarpaulin and a fleet management system.
Tarpaulin rippers are a real plague in Europe. They attack at night, usually in low-light and unguarded parking lots. Wabco and Sioen, a Belgian manufacturer of protective clothing, have jointly developed the ‘Detector’ technology to prevent theft of cargo from so-called tautliners.
This is a smart, multi-layered tarpaulin with conductive layers connected to Wabco’s Fleet Management Solution (FMS), TX-Trailerguard™. An alarm will be automatically triggered should the tarpaulin be tampered with. Drivers are alerted through an audible warning or an in-cab notification. An alarm is also sent to the fleet back office in real-time through WABCO’s TX-CONNECT™ solution.
According to Wabco, Detector has already been tested in the field. Belgium-based Soncotra was the first to apply the new technology within its trailer fleet.
German tarpaulin with alarm
A similar product was created 3 years ago by Andreas Gießler, a student at the Faculty of Transport and Logistics of the University of Bremerhaven. He developed a special alarm system (‘Alarmplane’), which protects tarpaulin from tampering and thus cargo from theft. See how ‘Alarmplane’ works:
Photo: Wabco