March 2001

A trailer tracking system called Susie-Track has been launched by TMC Innovations, a Banbury-based company headed by Rudolph Buré, who has long experience of the in-cab computer market. He worked in the past for DAF Trucks and Inmarsat, the satellite operator.

The system is hidden inside one of the chassis main members and has its own power supply, allowing trailers to be tracked when they are parked up as well as on the move. It was demonstrated at this month's Commercial Vehicle Show on a trailer bodied by UK builder Southfields of Loughborough.

The system can include sensors on the "susie" tractor-trailer air-brake couplings, as well as on doors, side curtains and elsewhere. It features a device known as TraPaSIC, for which a patent has been applied, to filter out spurious signals from the sensors (the name stands for transport power and signal input conditioner unit).

Data can be transmitted automatically back to the operator's premises, where the location of the trailer can be plotted to within 50 metres on a display that includes a comprehensive street index.