Michelin names Gist as launch customer for Effitrailer programme

Supply chain specialist Gist has signed up as the UK launch customer for Michelin solutions’ new Effitrailer programme. Gist is a supply chain company with a long history spanning more than 100 years. The company provides bespoke supply chain solutions that deliver cost savings, environmental benefits and competitive advantage.

Effitrailer centres around the installation of dedicated trailer telematics equipment, featuring an on-board datalink, tyre pressure monitoring system and electronic braking system (EBS) data analysis. Once installed the equipment also enables constant geolocation of every Effitrailer-optimised asset in a company’s fleet.

Gist rolled the technology out across 58 tri-axle Gray & Adams double-decker trailers – which will be used on the company’s long-distance trunking routes – after participating in a 27-trailer pilot project and reporting promising results, with Gist Engineering Director Sam de Beaux describing the Effitrailer programme as “the first important step on the road to predictive rather than reactive maintenance for commercial fleets”.

“During the pilot, which started in February 2015 and ends with this new contract, the Effitrailer system helped us prevent anywhere up to five trailer tyre-related incidents a week on the test trailers,” says Sam. “If we prevent just five incidents a month on the 58 double-deckers the system will pay for itself within two years, based on engineering cost savings such as tyre fitter call-out costs and replacement tyres – that is without considering the impact on our customers due to breakdown delays.   Michelin has underwritten these savings on the trailers to be fitted.”

Effitrailer sees Michelin solutions commit to reducing the number of tyre-related trailer breakdowns by up to 50 per cent – a commitment validated after diagnosis by a Michelin solutions logistic analyst. If Michelin solutions does not achieve this goal, the company will refund the cost of all breakdowns over and above the contractual terms.

The real-time data generated by Effitrailer telematics is sent to a dedicated fleet manager’s web portal, and details each asset’s exact location, mileage, the current pressure and temperature of every tyre on every axle, the length of any periods of abnormal downtime or ‘wait-time’, the ‘unhooked’ or ‘towed’ status of the asset and whether the trailer is overloaded.

Sam adds: “The predictive capability of Effitrailer allows an email to be sent to the owning depot of the trailer when tyre pressures are outside the ‘green’ set points. The typical time in the majority of cases before a tyre pressure becomes critical due to a slow leak is days rather than hours – this allows rectification in a planned manner, rather than an emergency situation at the roadside.”

“The safety enhancements of such systems are considerable, and will play an important role in Gist’s ongoing commitment to the safety of its people and their surrounding communities.”

Michelin solutions has launched Effitrailer in Europe, and the telematics system can be installed on all trailer types equipped with EBS, regardless of age or manufacturer. The solution is aimed primarily at fleets operating at least 100 trailers on any brand of tyres, and is available regardless of current or future tyre policy. This makes it suitable for the estimated 90 per cent of trailers in Europe which do not currently use telematics