Generative Data Intelligence

DPD fresh gets a taste of Sensolus IoT solutions to guarantee food safety

Date:

Ghent, 11 January 2023 – Sensolus, specialized in connected asset management, together with Simac Group, has developed an IoT solution for DPD fresh. Using trackers and a monitoring platform, the express transport service is now able to keep an overview of the temperatures of the thousands of refrigerated food packages in transit at all times. That way it can guarantee food safety, take preventive action where necessary and avoid food waste.

DPD fresh was founded in 2020 by DPD Belux as an express transport service, and delivers within 24 hours food items—including fresh and frozen products—to professionals and private individuals. The Belgian subsidiary of European parcel supplier DPDgroup distinguishes itself with an active refrigerated network so that clients do not have to invest in expensive packaging materials to keep their goods at temperature. Where the Belgian Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FASFC) guidelines allow for temperature deviations for a maximum of 30 to 60 minutes, DPD fresh wanted to go further and looked at technology for the solution.

Reliable

Simac Group, DPD’s IT partner for many years, pointed out the strength of tracking technology, for which it works closely together with IoT specialist Sensolus. The smart solution combines hardware and software and reports temperature data via a tracker. Sensolus’ TRACK 1100 uses NB-IoT technology to send the data from the sensors to the cloud, utilizing cell towers. The information can be viewed in real-time in the central DPD fresh’s system. 

“We want to, and can do better. Checking the temperature regularly prevents us from only finding out afterwards that something went wrong and allows us to intervene proactively when and where necessary. No risks are taken with the quality and freshness of food products, which is why we needed a reliable monitoring platform,” says Tom Mertens, IT manager at DPD fresh.

Because the tracker has such a low energy consumption, they last for years,” says Pieter Doornaert, VP of Sales at Sensolus. “This way, assets with a lower cost price—that do serve an extremely valuable purpose in the logistics chain—can also be fitted with IoT tracking. To extend the lifespan even further, no data is transmitted when the delivery truck is stationary, between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.. As soon as it moves even one meter, the tracker reactivates. Thanks to this customized optimization, the battery life was almost doubled.”

Efficiency gains and seamless integration

When a fully loaded truck with 50 packages arrives at its destination, all the packages—and the corresponding sensors—have to be digitally “transferred” to the refrigeration unit. That used to mean scanning 50 times. Now, the entire load registered in the IoT platform can be transferred to the refrigeration unit in one scan.

“This is a huge time-saver. I reckon it means efficiency gains of as much as 30 to 50 percent in total operating costs when handling larger volumes,” according to Koen Verlaenen, DPD fresh’s General Manager. 

In addition to the associated IoT platform, the data from the trackers is also integrated into DPDgroup’s own platform using an API. Particularly this feature DPD fresh’s IT Manager is very enthusiastic about:

“This further increases traceability for all transported food products. This seamless integration also saves us a lot of time and research, although we do some searches and retrieval of historical data via the Sensolus platform because it is so user-friendly,” Tom Mertens points out.

Textbook example for food transport

The solution has been running for a few months now, and performs well, to everyone’s satisfaction. For each package of food items, DPD fresh can guarantee 100% that it has been transported in ideal conditions and can also take preventive action if that promise is compromised.

About Sensolus
​Sensolus is an industrial Internet of Things (IoT) company that tracks non-powered assets such as trailers, containers, etc. through an end-to-end solution, helping companies make better, data-driven business decisions. The company has years of expertise in telecom, low-power networks, wireless sensor design and cloud-based analytics. Sensolus’ plug-and-play IoT solution includes wireless trackers and an open IoT platform that enables value creation and cost reduction by linking it to enterprise data. This way, supply chains and logistics processes—in which non-powered assets play an important role—can be optimised.

The Ghent-based scale-up was founded in 2013 by four IoT enthusiasts and currently has 35 employees. It is active in various industries, ranging from aerospace, automotive and logistics to industrial manufacturing and waste management. Customers such as Airbus, Atlas Copco and AB InBev rely on Sensolus’ IoT solution every day. More than 150,000 assets can be tracked in real-time on the platform. For more information: www.sensolus.com

About DPD fresh
DPD fresh is an express transport service for the delivery of dry food items as well as fresh and frozen products within Belgium. The Belgian subsidiary of the European parcel supplier DPDgroup distinguishes itself with an active refrigerated network. DPD fresh offers the food industry a flexible and simple solution to the logistical challenges of an ever-changing market. In addition, they optimize distribution and support e-commerce activities. For more information about speed, food safety and traceability and increasing efficiency in your logistics and production, visit www.dpd.com/be/en/sending/dpd-fresh/

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