Fiway: Ensuring Cold Chain Integrity

The cold chain has many weak links. For example, in transportation, the truck’s or trailer’s refrigeration unit could slip outside its control limits, ruining the cargo. The doors might be left open for too long at each stop, ruining some or all the cargo because the refrigeration unit couldn’t keep up. Perhaps the driver didn’t perform the pre-trip test that the International Refrigerated Transportation Association recommends.

The list of potential problems goes on — and that’s just for the refrigerated unit (also called a reefer). The truck itself is vulnerable to additional issues that could delay or damage the cargo, such as engines that run hot or low on oil.

Fiway recognized those challenges and developed an end-to-end solution for all the companies in the cold chain ecosystem, from trucking companies to customers such as seafood providers, grocery stores and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Founded in 2017, the company interviewed transportation companies to understand what they and the rest of the ecosystem needed.

That allowed us to investigate the technical aspects of the sector further and bring to market a product that fully reflects the needs of transport companies in the refrigeration sector.

Francesca Amisano, Fiway Technical Director, November 2019, IL Mondo dei Trasporti

One part of the Fiway solution is CO.BO, which controls the refrigeration unit’s operation and a series of sensors mounted onboard the vehicle. Short for “control board,” CO.BO provides users with a complete overview of the refrigeration container’s operation and the truck or trailer, including the condition of its brakes. This data helps identify emerging problems before they result in extensive, expensive damage to the cargo, truck or trailer.

CO.BO also tracks each time the loading doors are opened and closed. All this data can be exported to the user’s management systems for analysis and action.

The Telit Advantage

To develop CO.BO, Fiway chose the Telit GE910-QUAD V3 module, which supports GSM and GPRS in all four of the world’s most widely used 2G/2.5G bands. That ensures CO.BO can maintain a connection as vehicles travel throughout Europe and North Africa.

The GE910-QUAD V3 includes a feature-rich TCP/IP stack and Python Script Language interpreter. The module can run customer applications internally — including location-based ones that work with a companion Telit GNSS module. Those capabilities enable the module to serve as a complete IoT solution, making it ideal for bill-of-material (BOM) and cost-sensitive applications such as telematics.

Telit was chosen for the quality of its products and the quality and professionalism of its assistance.

Edoardo Angelini, Fiway General Manager

Telit provides Fiway with a one-stop-shop for hardware, SIMs and connectivity, enabling CO.BO devices to roam and ensuring that users can always track vehicles and monitor cargo status. In addition to 24/7/365 support, Telit also provides Fiway with:

Telit OPTIMUS artificial intelligence (AI) engine, which analyzes each module’s data usage and then automatically assigns its SIM to the most cost-effective data plan. This retroactive plan assignment eliminates data overages and bill shock that might otherwise be encountered for device updates or other device issues. OPTIMUS also frees Fiway to expand CO.BO to additional markets and develop other innovative solutions instead of manually comparing and changing rate plans.

Connectivity Management Portal, to manage and monitor all your SIMs and connected devices from one intuitive interface. Telit’s IoT connectivity management offers the industry’s highest, smartest and most complete control over your IoT devices no matter where they are. Fiway has fully integrated Connectivity Management Portal with its Reyesol portal, enabling customers to track vehicle locations and set alarms for problems, such as out-of-range temperatures and more.

If you use, for example, a monitor to establish routes and organize the traffic based on outlets and exchanges to be made, the same monitor can be used to manage and verify operation of the refrigeration unit.

Edoardo Angelini, Fiway General Manage