Amsted Reelin Provides An End-To-End Platform For Fleet Visibility To Railway Operators In Africa
Amsted Reelin, a collaboration between Amsted Rail, a leading US rail company, and South Africa’s Reelin Group, is delivering innovative digital asset tracking and condition-based monitoring solutions from Amsted Digital Solutions (ADS), an affiliate of Amsted Rail to the African rail industry. The End-To-End Platform boosts the efficiency and reliability of rail operations, promoting a more integrated and thoroughly monitored network of rolling stock assets across the continent.
“As we witness a concerted effort to enhance connectivity across Africa through rail infrastructure and foster greater intra-regional trade, the African railway sector stands on the cusp of unprecedented expansion. While this represents a collective win for the region, it also means that railway operators and rolling stock asset owners must maximise every aspect of their operations. This is precisely where the ADS digital solution comes into play, offering a fit-for-purpose mechanism tailored to the unique needs of this region. In the changing African railway environment, digital solutions will play a crucial role in elevating operational performance, ensuring asset security and enhancing competitiveness, thereby underpinning the sector’s growth trajectory,” says Mervyn Chetty, Senior Manager, Amsted Reelin.
The core IoT telematic solution provides an end-to-end, integrated platform for unpowered asset segments, including freight rail wagons, over-the-road trailers, chassis, containers, and ISO tank containers. This comprehensive system, a notable advancement in the IoT telematics space, is designed to optimise operations across railway operations.
Utilising cloud-based Supply Chain Visibility™ software, the platform equips asset owners and fleet operators with near real-time intelligence, crucial for managing operations efficiently, even across borders. It combines IoT devices, communication management, data warehousing, and sophisticated web tools and applications to deliver a customised solution.
Proprietary algorithms within the platform offer comprehensive insights into asset locations, destinations, and estimated arrival times. This service is further enhanced by the integration of wireless sensors for tracking load securement, status, and temperature, including radar-based level sensors that assess the content volume within tank cars or trailers.
Amsted Reelin’s focus extends to asset utilisation metrics and predictive analytics for asset health, emphasising the longevity and reliability of crucial components like wheels, bearings and brakes. This holistic approach ensures precise monitoring and aids in strategic asset distribution and maintenance planning, providing a significant advantage in asset management.
The platform’s near real-time tracking and tracing capabilities enable effective location, protection, and management of mobile assets, significantly increasing asset time in service, accurately tracking mileage, and reducing both dwell time and demurrage costs. Moreover, it optimises the transportation asset fleet, providing operational insights that enhance revenue per asset, and reduce route bottlenecks.
Real-time alerts on critical events, including arrival notifications, delays in transit, and instances of assets being opened outside secure facilities, ensure stakeholders remain informed, facilitating swift decision-making.
Condition reports provide valuable operational insights, identifying issues such as ineffective brakes and predicting the health of wheels and bearings. This facilitates the introduction of predictive maintenance strategies into asset fleets, optimising performance and longevity.
Data processed through machine-learning algorithms yield actionable insights and predictive analytics, creating a robust database for continuous improvement. Users benefit from the platform’s design, which allows for detailed customisation and multi-layered reporting.
The sensor technology’s value includes load securement and status monitoring, significantly enhancing safety and logistics efficiency. The brake health sensor and wheelset health sensor promote condition-based maintenance programs, reducing costs and improving fleet efficiency. Additionally, intra-train communication technology transmits critical information, reducing inspection times and enhancing safety during transit.
“In our mission to deliver reliable digital solutions for the African continent, it’s crucial to address the specific challenges faced by operators. Among the standout features of our solution is its innovative hybrid power design, which combines solar energy with rechargeable batteries, extending operational life to up to 10 years. This device, intrinsically safe and certified, offers flexibility for installation on the body or bogie of railcars. Furthermore, our adoption of state-of-the-art communication tools, including, cellular, and GNSS technology compatible with GPS, Glonass, and Galileo, among others, with fallback options, guarantees continuous encrypted tracking capabilities. However, what truly sets our solution apart is not just its intuitive use and sophisticated data analysis, but also the ability to rapidly deploy this technology, ensuring immediate improvements in operational efficiency and security,” concludes Mervyn.