IDENTEC SOLUTIONS has announced that its  Reefer Runner terminal-based reefer monitoring solution went operational in December 2021 at Puerto Bolivar, Ecuador as part of Yilport’s initiative to boost productivity at their terminals worldwide. Puerto Bolivar is the first in the Yilport portfolio of 22 terminals in 10 countries to implement Reefer Runner.

In 2016 Yilport signed a 50-year concession to operate Puerto Bolívar, where it will invest US$750M to create a container terminal with an annual capacity of 2.5m TEU.

A large percentage of the port’s business is fruits and seafood exported in reefer containers. Installing Reefer Runner will enable the terminal to replace labour-intensive manual reefer container inspections with remote reefer monitoring. “The savings in endless shifts of checks prove invaluable as staff can focus on their most important tasks and dramatically reduce claims for damaged goods. The installation of Reefer Runner at Puerto Bolívar enables the terminal operator to grow without increasing the costs for reefer container inspection teams,” IDENTEC SOLUTIONS said.

“Our expansion of terminal operations enables us to focus on the entire supply chain,” said Hugo García, Operations Director at Yilport Puerto Bolivar. “Therefore, it is crucial to stay competitive by decreasing costs and increasing the quality of terminal management. Reefer Runner does precisely this for us.”

Reefer Runner uses transponder units that support two way communication with the reefer controller and send data wirelessly to a central system. Users can monitor temperature and power supply, adjust setpoints according to the goods in the reefer container, perform automated pre-trip inspections and download data logs for documentation reasons. In addition, as each reefer tag is connected to the system independently, the entire system is expandable and not affected by a failure at one container.

Yilport ordered 1300 Reefer Runner transponders for Puerto Bolivar. Leveraging the system it can offer customers:

• 100% view of the container from entrance to departure.
• Actual data for energy consumption for each unit and for time connected
• Improved quality of service at the reefer yard
• Historical data registered for possible claims and data log downloads

Despite the challenges of the  COVID-19 pandemic the project team around Julian Galvis, VP Sales Marine & Ports, completed the installation according to plan on December 27th, 2021.