Door Sensors: Why You Should Consider Not Skipping

June 1, 2023 — The door sensor – it simply detects when a door is opened or closed so how does this humble attachment add incredible value to your fleet?

Most fleet management systems can integrate an array of different sensors and attachments in their system to keep track of crucial data. The information they collect can be anything ranging from a vehicle’s location, fuel levels, cargo temperature, and, in the door sensor’s case, even the opening and closing of doors, be it a vehicle’s or its cargo compartment’s.

How Does a Door Sensor Work?

Door sensors use a magnet to detect a door’s movement. A switch is released, which will trigger an alert that will reflect in your fleet management or security system.

They usually rely on Wi-Fi to communicate with your company’s fleet management system via the cloud or by sending a digital signal to a partner GPS device that delivers the information to the system in real time, allowing fleet managers to act accordingly in the moment.

What’s In It for Your Fleet?

The door sensor may have a simple functionality but its value to a fleet isn’t something to undermine.

• Monitor Vehicle Access

It’s all about access. 

Being alerted to door access and having a historical record of it complete with date and time is crucial, especially when you want to detect:

• • unauthorized access to vehicles
  • when drivers give rides to unauthorized individuals, which can be derived from the opening of the passenger door
  • when door access coincides with a scheduled or unscheduled stop

• Prevent Vehicle and/or Cargo Theft

Because a door sensor immediately alerts the accessing of vehicle and cargo doors, this gives you the opportunity to act quickly. You can make the necessary calls and check-ins to confirm if all is well, or even dispatch resources to personally verify the status of the suspected compromised vehicle.

In the event of an actual theft, you can easily recover and locate the vehicle by making use of the rest of your fleet management system’s functionalities, such as its GPS attachment that allows live tracking.

• Monitoring and Mitigation of Damage or Cargo Loss

Door sensor reports can be used as a reference and/or evidence should any incident occur. 

For example, cargo is stolen from one of your vehicles. Your driver claims thieves must have broken into the cargo container while he was stuck in deadlock traffic. When you check the system, it reports that at some point during the trip, the cargo door sensor alerted that it was opened while the driver’s door sensor remained intact. From just that data alone, you can partially derive that your staff is likely telling the truth.

In another scenario, you might detect in your fleet management system that the cargo door is open while the delivering vehicle is in transit. One quick phone call to alert the driver or the operator to check and re-secure the cargo doors can save precious goods from being lost or damaged during the trip.

• Minimizing Energy Costs

This is especially true for vehicles transporting temperature-sensitive goods.

It is one thing to be able to monitor the temperature and humidity of the cargo hold with respective sensors, it’s another thing to be able to make sure that all cargo doors are properly closed and sealed in order to completely protect the quality of the goods, especially perishable ones.

Webcast’s NavX and TrackMe Suite offer fleet management solutions, designed to cater to your business’ needs with multiple use case options available. For more information, questions, or inquiries, visit https://trackme.com.ph/contact-us/.