What is remote reefer monitoring?

Refrigerated containers, also called reefers, are insulated, temperature-controlled shipping containers used for transporting perishable cargo, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen foods, pharmaceuticals, and other temperature-sensitive products. They aim to maintain specific interior temperature and atmosphere settings, ensuring cargo integrity over long transit, usually overseas and often taking weeks.

With today’s advancements in refrigerated container technology, growers can now ship fresh produce over distances that were nearly impossible until more recently, leading to a surge in demand for off-season produce from worldwide suppliers. For instance, recently, blueberries in New York were a summertime-only commodity. Now suppliers from as far away as Argentina and Chile can satisfy a year-round demand for this popular fruit.

As a result, ports and terminals around the globe are increasing dedicated yard space, as they provide for the import and export and refrigerated containers. And this is no small investment. Because, unlike dry containers that can sit indefinitely without any attention and with little concern for cargo integrity, reefers require a constant electrical supply to maintain their onboard refrigeration systems.

Therefore, substantial access to reliable electricity is critical, either through installed ground power or off-grid generator sets. Additionally, specially designed outlet plugs and cabling are needed to complete the connections.

But more than that, reefer cargo is a valuable commodity that needs frequent and consistent attention from terminal operators. Because if a refrigerated container loses power or the interior conditions fall out of specification, the entire cargo load may be lost. And that’s a situation to be avoided.

Like a thermostat in your home, the control panel on each refrigerated container provides the operator with visual information regarding the container’s current interior condition of temperature, humidity, and other elements like controlled atmosphere, alarms, and more. This data needs to be recorded and logged at regular intervals. Generally speaking, this means a dedicated person is assigned to walk the entire reefer yard, visually inspect each control panel, and record the information manually with pen and paper (or sometimes on a mobile device or laptop). All while ensuring the correct values get assigned to the right container number. Plus, this information must be filed and stored for proper data management.

This effort requires extraordinary attention. And with some reefer terminals handling hundreds to thousands of containers, this task can become overwhelming. And the reefers don’t care if it’s a nice sunny day or a torrential storm. So, inspections and verifications of each refrigerated container are essential and required.

Automating this process eliminates potential inconsistencies in human data recording. In addition, it provides terminal operators, remotely located, with on-demand, real-time access to the condition of each reefer under their care. Reefer monitoring is a solution that frees labor to more pressing terminal tasks and ensures the achievement of timely and accurate temperature measurements.

For over 40 years, RTE has remained committed to supporting the needs of the refrigerated transportation industry by providing innovative solutions for collecting and storing data related to perishable containerized cargo.

Find out more by reading these articles.

• How does remote reefer monitoring work?
• What are the benefits of remote reefer monitoring?
• Who benefits from remote reefer monitoring?
• Where is remote reefer monitoring used?
• Is remote monitoring suitable for my reefer operation?