Air Canada will now carry tracking devices on all its aircraft, enabling customers to monitor the location and environmental conditions of their shipments in real time.
The carrier approved the devices after testing by its engineering and cargo operations teams. These devices have different capabilities with multiple sensors. They can detect changes in temperature, humidity, pressure, shock, location and vibration.
Such devices use multiple modes of sensing and software to automatically turn off their data transmission systems to ensure safe and regulatory compliant operation throughout the duration of flight. The devices it has approved for Air Canada Cargo shipments are, the FedEx SenseAware 2000, Key Seven EPS2 Microtracker, Sendum PT300 and PT300D and the OnAsset SENTRY 400 FlightSafe and SENTRY 500 FlightSafe.
Air Canada’s Americas marketing and sales director, Vito Cerone, says: “With multiple [global positioning system] GPS tracking devices approved for use on all our flights, shippers can benefit from the numerous advantages offered by real time visibility and data collection for their shipments on Air Canada Cargo.”
SenseAware is FedEx’s monitoring service. It is web based and allows customers to see in, “near real time,” the location, temperature, and in some case exposure to light. OnAsset Intelligence’s OnAsset SENTRY products provide users with location by GPS and data on temperature, humidity, pressure, shock, vibration and motion. Wireless technology company Sendum’s PT300 uses mobile phone technology, such as Global System for Mobile communication (GSM), for tracking. The Microtracker company’s EPS2 also uses GSM and GPS.
