Trimline, a marine refinisher, has created a logistics tracking system, the Trimline App (TAPP), that helps track shipments anywhere on Earth, from the time they leave the warehouse to the time they arrive at a dry dock or ship.
A tag is added to each delivery item and linked to TAPP, which receives a ping from the item every 15 to 20 minutes, alerting the app to the use of the item’s location at any time.
Trimline said in a statement that it wants to create a tracking app that tracks real goods, not a vehicle.
“It wasn’t good enough to just follow a vehicle with our goods,” said Trimline co-owner Nick Farrell.
“What happens, for example, if your goods are being moved from one vehicle to another and they make a mistake and don’t load all the pallets?” What happens if the goods are delivered to the warehouse dock, at which point the courier tracking stops, but then the box disappears?”
TAPP also allows the Trimline team to see the location of each pallet or location box and with a simple click they can see the items inside, including commodity codes and values.
The company originally planned to create a tracking system that only tracks high-value items, but they soon realized that this would not achieve the result they were hoping for.
“You’d think it would make sense to track the high-value items, but if you’re really interested in the success of the project, then you have to look at everything,” said Trimline co-owner Ross Welham.
“For example, if you need two pallets of liner for a project and one pallet disappears from the dock, you may not be able to complete the project on time, and that would be a big problem for both us and our client.” By tracking each pallet, we know exactly where the missing item is and can arrange to pick it up.
Trimline’s tracking system also alerts the project team when a package has stopped moving or entered a certain area, as well as when it arrives within two hours of dry dock.
“Now we can see all of our shipments in transit, and if there’s a problem, we can catch it early and organize a response,” said Owen Hamilton, direct support or project support.
“For example, we had a problem earlier this year when the trailer broke down and the truck stopped in the middle of France. We spotted it before the logistics company even knew about it, and managed to organize a set of sprinter vans to unload the trailer and deliver the goods to their destination in time to complete the project. Without this system, it could be a different story.”