LoRa asset tracking solution to monitor railway construction wagons in Switzerland

Problem

Railrental leases railway construction wagons in Switzerland. The company doesn’t own the wagons. The owners are other construction companies that do not need their property for some time. So Railrental runs some kind of exchange. The company was looking for an asset tracking solution to facilitate wagon management.

• Three parties from the chain (owners, renters, and Railrental itself) needed to know the location of the wagons as they got lost sometimes.
• There is no permanent electrical power on the wagons to ensure the long-term work of tracking devices. 
• Railrental needed to track where the wagons stop either for parking or construction works.

A construction wagon leased by Railrental

Solution

Railrental turned to Gotthard Handels AG, Switzerland,  for a suitable wagon tracking system and the Wialon partner was ready to offer one.

• Gotthard Handels chose Swisscom's LPN LoRaWAN as a network for devices of the LoRa asset tracking solution as it covers 97% of the population in Switzerland. 
• The client’s wagons were equipped with Comtac LoRaWAN E1374 trackers. This tracker had already been integrated with Swisscom's LPN. The device is water-resistant and has a long-life battery lasting up to 4–5 years without recharging.
• The wagon location data from the trackers is transmitted to Wialon via Swisscom's LPN. 
• Railrental, the wagon owners, and renters can follow the vehicle location data in Wialon.

The asset tracking solution used LoRa for accurate on-site tracking of wagons with no access to electrical power

Gotthard Handels provides support for the project during working hours.

The asset tracking solution has already been implemented for 21 wagons, and the client plans to continue with installations.