Modis (SONAE) – Supplying Hypermarkets and Supermarkets in Portugal

Exceeding 200 trailers, Modis’ fleet is responsible for transporting goods to all Sonae Distribution hypermarkets, supermarkets, and department stores in Portugal.

In each trailer, a Frotcom device was installed, along with a temperature sensor and a door opening detector. The device is powered by the refrigerators' starter battery, which allows it to keep working even when the head tractor is not connected to the trailer.

The vehicles are distributed through 5 different control centers along with the country’s territory. In each control center, the corresponding sub fleet is controlled by a direct team. On top of that, a supervising team has access to the data from all vehicles.

According to Mr. Casimiro Ferreira, Director at Sonae responsible for implementing the project, “With Frotcom it is possible to optimize the transportation, increase the safety of the products transported, control the temperature of perishable products, reduce transport costs, improve the compliance with the delivery schedules and reduce losses due to theft and wrongly switched deliveries.”

This technology allows the fleet managers to monitor all movements of the trailers: speed and location, at what time the trip began, stopping times, etc. But also to make sure that perishable goods are transported at the right temperatures. In case of dispute, the temperature records in Frotcom will complement the one delivered by the thermograph installed in the trailer.

The door opening detector complements other security methods used by Sonae to impede the opening of the door outside of the permitted areas (loading and unloading locations). If a door is open outside of these areas, an alarm is generated.

Sonae received the Optimus Mobility Award in June 2007, in the category of Mobilization of Productive Processes, for the results of the use of Frotcom in its fleet. This project won among 9 candidates in the same category.