Trailers are used for a variety of purposes, for multiple industries, throughout the entire year. For companies with multiple assets, keeping tabs on everything at once can be a chore. When seasonal trailers are left out in the elements (wind, rain, snow, sleet, ice), finding them can become an excavation at the end of the season. Doused by over 200 centimeters of snow per year, Canadian fleet vehicles and assets must be actively monitored to guarantee their safe return. There are a few ways that trailers can vanish, let’s take a look at how to set up preventative measures for potential disappearances.
How Trailers Disappear
Not only can trailers get lost, covered, or misplaced, but they’re also at great risk of getting stolen, specifically when left unattended for long periods of time. Those hauling construction equipment, transportation trailers, or storage containers might be dropping their load off for a small job (1-3 weeks) or a long-term project that can last months. When trailers are on job sites or container ports for an extended period of time, implementing a way to maintain visibility is crucial to the safety of the towable as well as the contents.
Titan GPS offers trackers for both powered and non-powered trailers, so you’ll have clarity over assets regardless. This is great for mixed fleets with a variety of vehicles, trailers, and equipment that need to be monitored before, during, and after hours. To prevent theft, some of our trackers even have sensors to detect tampering, movement, light, and other customizable preventative features.
Ways to Prepare Trailers for Extended Stays
There are a few quick and easy ways to begin prepping trailers for long hauls or extended stays in the field. Using a combination of hardware, software, and situational awareness, assets left on site over the winter months can be overseen from afar. Here here are four great ways to get trailers ready for
Monitor location with GPS tracking
The best, and most obvious way, to track trailers is to use a GPS device to monitor their location. We suggest that you consider both cellular and satellite trackers, depending on where you are working/storing the trailers. Deep in the woods, satellite connectivity can offer more precise reporting than cellular data processing trying to ping towers at long range.
Survey surroundings with cameras
As mentioned before, keeping trailers in sight with dash cams can help to ensure that assets are where they should be and in the same state that they arrived. Periodic camera check-ins will give peace of mind to owners worried about contents falling, getting weather damage, or being tampered with. Alerts can also be set for suspicious activity and recorded data can be used to hold guilty thieves accountable.
Detect entry/tampering with sensors
Whether it’s employees or intruders, sensors are able to perceive and alert users of trailer doors opening/closing, movement within or around the trailer, temperature shifts inside in the trailer, and more. With customizable alerts to warn users of authorized or questionable activity, you’ll never have to worry about being unaware again.
Set custom alerts for activity or unauthorized movement
If you’re this far in the implementation process, you probably already have a system for sensors in place, or your fleet management software provider can help you get one set up. Custom alerts take all of your defensive measures into account and then centralize them within our fleet management app. Establish which activity you would like to be alerted by (tampering, movement, location entry/exit, etc.) and send push notifications directly from the FieldDocs app to whichever users on your team need to be in the loop.
Without safeguarding your trailers from people, they’re left vulnerable to a variety of detrimental activities. But let’s not forget how abrasive and imposing the elements can be on any materials, from wood to metal, when left unprotected in nature’s clutches. Take a few of these weatherproofing techniques into consideration before deploying assets for the latter months of the year.
Weatherproofing Trailers to Prevent Potential Damage
Apart from using GPS to track location, cameras to record video, and sensors to track additional activities, there are some manual measures that trailer owners can take to stave off unnecessary damages from the elements during the winter months. If your trailers are kept in areas of high snow accumulation, here are a few ways to prevent cave-ins, water damage, and ruined equipment:
- Wet snow weighs about 9 kilograms per cubic foot. Multiply that by the area of your trailer’s roof, and you’ll find that amount of weight can potentially cave the roof in. Not to mention the melting snow can cause water ingress that threatens the integrity of the unit’s weather seals. Try to park trailers under the cover of a garage, car port, or storage facility. If absolutely necessary, a makeshift lean-to can force falling snow to slide down the slanted surface toward the ground.
- Canada’s winter temperatures average from –5 to –15 °C. This extreme cold can cause seals around trailer doors and windows to crack. Melting snow, falling freezing rain, and warming ice can all leak through these seals, damaging electronics or tools inside. It’s also a great idea to purchase insurance for equipment that frequently travels in frigid regions.
- Monitor tire pressure before taking the trip and periodically throughout the stay. Tire pressure can drop around 1 PSI for every 10 degrees in temperature loss, and tire pressure normally varies among each tire. If the pressure of a single tire dips, the trailer can potentially slip, tilt, or turn over because it’s no longer level. Some sensors are able to detect low tire pressure and report them back to the owner before it’s too late. Be sure to check tires before the initial journey to replace or repair any issues pre-trip.
These are just a few weatherization tips for fleet vehicles, but there are a variety of preventative maintenance techniques that can be followed to further secure your trailers and cargo. It helps to also pack some snow removal gear into your vehicles, truck beds, or trailers in the event that a trailer needs to be dug out. Shovels, tire chains, salt, ash, and wooden boards can help with getting trailers, or vehicles, unstuck in a pinch. It’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
Keep Your Eyes on the Supplies
If your business has a variety of trailers, or even if they’re rented from a third party, Titan GPS has a trailer tracking solution to assure their safety. In addition to sensors, we can even help with added layers of protection by implementing interior and exterior vehicle cameras so you can survey surroundings in real time. Book a demo today to learn how we can help you find your trailers regardless of whether they’re buried in snow, lost deep in the woods, stolen from a job site, or simply misplaced at your home terminal.
