Transportation and Logistics

Trucks, trailers, freight wagons, reefer containers and pallets are constantly on the move, often across borders and without their own power supply. If you do not know where a shipment is and what condition it is in, you plan with buffers and make phone calls afterwards. IoT trackers and sensors report position, temperature, shocks and maintenance needs automatically, over the cellular network and via SMS fallback where there is no coverage. Here you will find more than 40 solution examples from trucking, rail, ports and warehouses, with user, technology and implementation partner.

IoT in logistics: what connected transport and warehouses already deliver

Logistics 4.0 means that vehicles, load carriers and warehouses report their own data instead of dispatchers collecting it by phone, hand scanner or delivery note. Digitalisation in logistics therefore almost always starts with visibility: where is the shipment, what condition is it in, and when will it arrive? Only on that data basis can routes be optimised, maintenance planned and emissions documented.

Unlike in a factory, logistics IoT is mobile. The devices travel on motorways, rails, ships and terminal yards, switch between networks and countries and often have no power supply. The solution examples on this page show how freight forwarders, railways, port operators and warehouse operators have solved this.

Typical IoT applications in transportation and logistics

Real-time shipment tracking and track & trace

GPS trackers on vehicles, trailers and load carriers deliver continuous position data, and geofences report when a shipment leaves a depot or crosses a border. In the warehouse, cameras, RFID and UWB take over this task: the ALDIS system from SICK automatically detects loads during loading and unloading and links them to the position of the forklift. More implementations in the use case item tracking throughout the supply chain.

Fleet management and truck telematics

Telematics units in the tractor and trailer transmit location, vehicle condition and maintenance data to a portal that the carrier and dispatch can access. Schmitz Cargobull ships every refrigerated trailer with telematics from the factory and now has more than 55,000 connected semi-trailers on the road. A caterer delivering around 7,500 lunches a day shows how route planning benefits: it manages its routes via a telematics app instead of by phone. More in the use case route optimization and route planning.

Cold chain monitoring in refrigerated transport

Temperature sensors in the refrigeration unit report deviations in real time instead of at the loading dock. The recorded values also serve as proof. In a project with Cumulocity, a refrigerated transport service provider used the telematics history to prove that a rejected load of strawberries had been kept at the right temperature throughout. The supermarket had to accept it, saving the grower a loss of 180,000 dollars.

Asset tracking for containers, pallets and load carriers

Returnable containers, mesh boxes, IBCs and special load carriers regularly disappear in the supply chain. Battery-powered trackers using LTE-M, NB-IoT or BLE report where a load carrier is and how long it has been there. Container management sees shrinkage and dwell times and controls returns instead of regularly restocking the pool. Examples in the use case object localization in the industrial IoT.

Telematics in rail freight

Freight wagons have no power supply, so the trackers run autonomously and send only small data packets. Rail Cargo Austria, the freight division of the Austrian Federal Railways, moves almost 100 million tonnes a year through 18 countries and has fitted its wagons with telematics from A1 Digital: GPS, shock detection, geofencing and SMS fallback where there is no coverage. Rhätische Bahn has connected around 500 freight wagons and infrastructure vehicles the same way.

Predictive maintenance for vehicles, cranes and handling equipment

Maintenance based on condition rather than the calendar reduces failures of vehicles and handling equipment. Rail Cargo Austria maintains its freight wagons according to actual use, based on telematics data. At the port of Hamburg, EUROGATE monitors the energy chains of its rail-loading cranes with sensors that measure push and pull forces and detect chain breaks early, so maintenance can be planned before a crane stops. More in the use case early detection of damage.

Warehouse and intralogistics: inventory and parcel flow in real time

In the warehouse, it is about inventory, throughput and staff. At its distribution centre in Künzelsau, Würth shows on a dashboard how many parcels are currently in the system and which batches are still to come, and uses this to plan staffing in the packing department. On Feldbinder silo trailers, the driver operates all valves centrally from one display and unloading is documented automatically. More examples in the use case inventory management.

Energy management and CO₂ reporting under ISO 14083

Shippers increasingly demand verifiable emissions data for transport and warehousing. Telematics data on distance and consumption is the basis for accounting under ISO 14083. At the site, consumption can be measured directly: the WAGO logistics centre in Sondershausen runs without fossil fuels, with around 650 kWp of solar power, heat pumps and IoT-based energy management that reports CO₂ emissions by plant area. More in the use case IoT-based energy management system.

Which connectivity fits logistics

For vehicles and trailers on the road, cellular is the norm, with roaming SIMs for cross-border transport. Battery-powered trackers on containers and freight wagons use low-power variants such as LTE-M or NB-IoT. On bounded sites such as ports, terminals or factory yards, LoRaWAN covers large areas with just a few gateways. Indoors, BLE, UWB and RFID are added because GPS does not work there. Most projects combine several of these technologies.

How to start an IoT project in logistics

Start with a question whose answer is worth money: where do load carriers disappear, which refrigerated shipments get rejected, which vehicles fail unexpectedly? Equip a manageable number of vehicles, containers or wagons and clarify early who owns the data and which system it flows into, such as the TMS, ERP or customer portal. After a few weeks the pilot shows whether the data holds up. Then roll it out to the fleet or the pool.

Finding IoT providers with logistics references

Every solution example on this page names the implementation partner, the technology used and in most cases the user, including Rail Cargo Austria, Rhätische Bahn, Schmitz Cargobull, EUROGATE, Würth and Feldbinder. So you can see who has already delivered a comparable project. If you briefly describe your project via the contact form, we will put you in touch with suitable providers.