SUPPLY CHAIN


T Steve Thomas Alejandro Patino, Vice President of Global


Sales at Queclink Wireless Solutions, warns that end-to-end visibility should not mean tracking every asset continuously. “This is neither necessary nor economically viable,” he points out. “A more sensible definition is continuity of identity, state and custody. An HGV may be fully visible, yet its cargo remains invisible, because the system does not know which trailer is attached, what shipments are inside it or whether responsibility has passed to a warehouse or another carrier.”


oday this is changing. Lower-cost monitoring options are making it possible to track a wider range of assets than ever before. At the same time, evolving connectivity and battery innovation are opening up advanced management


opportunities. The result is a single operational picture, running from the production line, through the warehouse, to final customer delivery. “Telematics was previously all about tracking


vehicles on the road, but now there is greater scope for a far more comprehensive telematics solution that is not constrained by type of asset,” explains Steve Thomas, Managing Director of Ctrack UK. “Bringing together the data into a single system, regardless of whether it is from an HGV, forklift, container, trailer, roll cage or even an individual pallet, delivers a complete view. This is where the real efficiency gains and performance benefits come from.”


TAKING TELEMATICS BEYOND THE WAREHOUSE DOOR


By Jonathan Symons, Freelance Writer, Jasper Business


Telematics used to stop at the warehouse door. Supply chain operations rarely had real-time visibility of materials handling equipment, machinery or storage containers, and whatever data existed sat in a separate system


when that cargo enters the facility. The real insight comes from combining those events into one continuing record.” “The potential for logistics telematics is huge and the benefits on offer are only going to increase,” suggests Ctrack’s Thomas. “However, the challenge for supply chain operations is to understand what is possible and then establish how this can be translated to their own requirements. With some clever thinking there is an opportunity to create a connected warehouse and transport infrastructure that is safe, secure, productive and efficient.” The warehouse has often proved difficult for


Alejandro Patino The next step is association rather than simply


more tracking. According to Patino, a system needs to understand the changing relationships between vehicle, trailer, cargo, sensor and location. “For example, proximity data can associate a cargo sensor with a particular trailer, the trailer tracker can provide its wider location and a warehouse gateway can detect


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a telematics marketplace used to deploying wired tracking units to high-value commercial vehicles. Cost has represented a major barrier for an environment that uses large volumes of equipment, often without a suitable power source. Battery capacity has traditionally failed to keep pace with telematics innovation, often creating a trade-off with functionality, while connectivity has proved to be unreliable in indoor conditions surrounded by thick concrete and metal racking. While the cost of both hard-wired and


battery-powered telematics has continued to fall in recent years, it is the emergence of an alternative tracking solution that Ctrack’s Steve Thomas highlights when discussing growing


SEPTEMBER 2026 | FACTORY&HANDLINGSOLUTIONS


affordability. “A traditional tracking device will never be justified on something like a roll cage, but we are now seeing the introduction of a new generation of low-cost BLE tags that are far more suitable. Using crowd-sourced connectivity, they come in multiple variants, from a paper-thin sticker or credit-card-sized tag to a more rugged device, with battery life ranging from 60 days to 60 months.” “These devices offer more advanced location


history than the consumer tags that are available, at a lower price, and when integrated with existing telematics software could have some interesting supply chain applications. For example, the system could be set up to generate an alert when a tag is more than a certain distance from a tracked trailer or HGV, which offers clear security benefits for high-value cargo.”


Queclink’s Patino believes that there


are several long-standing barriers that are now weakening to make telematics a compelling option for the supply chain. “The first is the trade-off between low power and responsiveness. Battery-operated trackers have traditionally had to choose between frequent communication and long operating life. However, newer power-management approaches are allowing devices to remain largely dormant while still being reachable within a useful window,


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