At the recent 2015 Fleet Transport Awards, held in Dublin last month, Knorr-Bremse and TIP Trailer Services received a second award for their revolutionary iTAP system with FleetRemote functionality, successfully winning the 2015 Trailer Innovation Award, in front of a packed audience representing the Irish Road Transport and Haulage Industry.
This latest accolade in Dublin follows on from an earlier success at the IAA Commercial Vehicle Show in Hannover during September, where the two companies were also presented with the Trailer Innovation Award 2015 for its trailer remote control system, this time in the Smart Trailer category.
The Fleet Transport 2015 Trailer Innovation Award was presented to Matthew Fry, Engineering Manager, Knorr-Bremse and Peter Sijs, Services & Sourcing Operations Director Europe, TIP Trailer Services, who commented that “to win back-to-back awards for iTAP is a measure of the recognition within the industry that iTAP offers fleet operators and truck drivers far greater safety, comfort and efficiency in and around their vehicles.”
The Fleet Transport 2015 Awards jury was impressed by the iTAP system with FleetRemote functionality, which is a remote control system for trailer functions. It enables these functions to be controlled with a smartphone or tablet in much the same way as with a remote control device. In addition, in combination with FleetRemote technology, it can also handle specific telematics functions.
In the past, data communication between tractor and trailer has only been possible to a limited extent. Certain data and functions are only accessible via displays and switches permanently installed on the vehicle. And in many cases these are not easy to access.
With iTAP, the truck driver can use the iTAP app and WiFi interface to contact the iTAP system on the trailer, which in turn transmits the commands to the brake control and chassis management systems. This way the driver can check the tyre pressure and temperature at each individual wheel, for example. Or he can control the lift axle and use the intelligent air suspension to raise or lower the trailer or select a pre-programmed ramp height.
“The close collaboration between TIP Trailer Services and Knorr-Bremse has ensured that, from the outset, the development work for iTAP has been focused on the needs of fleet operators, who are the end-users of our products. This product development programme is a huge step forward, in terms of connectivity and trailer health diagnostics, which has now been independently recognised by the European commercial vehicle industry through these two high-profile awards,” commented Matthew and Peter.
For more information and animations, visit knorr-bremse.de/iTAP. The app can be downloaded from Google Play Store or iTunes.