Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation (known as Wabtec) announced yesterday (Thursday 14 December) that it has signed an agreement with Dutch company Intermodal Telematics BV (IMT), under which Wabtec will create a railcar telematics platform using IMT technology.

This agreement will see the Wabtec enter the railcar telematics market, with its new railcar telematics platform delivering information in real time to railcar and tank container owners and operators. Wabtec explains that this will enable the operators “to turn rail cargo into smart, connected assets”.

Wabtec plans to make its railcar telematics product available in the first quarter of next year. Under the agreement, Wabtec will be the exclusive provider of the product in North America and other heavy haul freight markets globally.

Wabtec’s railcar telematics include sensors, gateways, wireless communications and analytics, which are able to track real-time location and monitor attributes such as handbrakes, hatches, doors and loaded/unloaded status for a railcar. For a tank container, it can also monitor cargo temperature and pressure.

Wabtec can retrofit the technology on existing vehicles, and will integrate it into its current railcar components during production.

Nalin Jain, Group President of Digital Intelligence at Wabtec, said, “The rail industry is on the verge of a new era where the use of real-time data about the status and condition of cargo will be transformative to the customer experience and supply chain efficiency. Telematics builds on Wabtec’s rich history serving the freight car markets with next-generation solutions. Our innovative solutions will improve shipment visibility, increase on-time performance, and expand asset utilization to make shipping freight by rail more competitive.”