Asset Tracking: High Motive

High Motive, leading the way in safety critical business communications

Client Overview

High Motive have over 25 years experience working with Railway communications. As part of their work, they require mobile expandable wellbeing units (MEWU), complete with toilets and washrooms, that are deployed on the sides of railroads for use by maintenance crews.

Objectives:

High Motive wanted to be able to track their mobile welfare units such as portable toilets and understand where they were located across the railway network. It was important to understand whether they were currently in use. They also needed to know if the units required maintenance, information that would be based on how often they were being used. Traditionally, this type of data could not be accessed without a manual visit to the station.

Specific Needs:

• Ability to track MEWU online without physical inspections

• GPS Location of all units across the railway system

• Maintenance and Sanitisation data

Our Solution

To meet the requirements of High Motive, Foresolutions worked with Digital Matters to provide battery powered IoT tracking devices, alongside their cloud tracking solution, Foretrack Connect, in order to provide a robust and reliable solution for their needs.

Foresolutions provided Oyster sensor devices, powered by three AA batteries, on the welfare units, which can update High Motive railroad staff with the information they need to manage the units.

With the Oyster sensors, Foresolutions’ system can detect not only GPS location, but also such conditions as tilts, the opening and closing of doors, vibration, and temperature or humidity changes. Each sensor has a unique identifier, and that ID number was then linked to the unit in Foresolutions’ cloud-based software.

When the unit was installed at a specific location, the GPS data was updated in the software. Any changes in location or sensor readings, such as tilts that might indicate it was being moved, then forwarded to the software resulting in those responsible for the stations being able to view where they were, as well as when they might be moving or may need to be serviced.

Users of Foretrack Connect could then choose to create the exceptions that should trigger an alert, for example a unit not being in use or requiring repositioning.

The Results

The technology has helped to make High Motive’s operations more sustainable, since they no longer need to physically send crews to sites where the stations do not require servicing. And for the stations’ users—the IoT data helps to ensure that the units are sanitised and well-maintained at all times.

The sensors’ long battery life enables High Motive to track assets in remote locations with flexible connectivity options and IP67 rating, which equips them to sustain temperature changes, water, ice and other outdoor conditions.

Foretrack Connect

We utilised our own software, Foretrack Connect to enable High Motive to proactively track their Welfare Units across the entire railway network. This included providing alerts when units need maintenance, haven't been sanitised in a while or locating units not in use.

The Foretrack system uses GPS satellite tracking and GPRS mobile phone technology to relay information live to a website. This allows the management team to see the exact location of each asset.