Case Study: Eliminating Rejected Deliveries with Intelligent Vehicle Monitoring
The Challenge: Preventing Temperature-Related Failures in Transit
A leading national logistics operator responsible for pharmaceutical distribution was facing a costly recurring issue - temperature-related delivery rejections.
Despite using insulated vehicles and basic telematics systems, their setup couldn’t distinguish between meaningful risks and false alarms. The result? Genuine temperature breaches often went undetected until it was too late, while staff became desensitised to frequent, irrelevant alerts.
The consequences were real:
- Fridge units would switch off mid-route without triggering appropriate alarms
- Drivers were unaware when temperature excursions occurred during transit
- QA teams struggled to investigate complaints due to lack of timestamped evidence
- False positives from idle periods at depots created alarm fatigue
- Delivery rejections were averaging one per month, damaging customer trust and wasting product
What the client needed wasn’t more sensors or more data - it was smarter logic and complete visibility, tailored to the realities of pharmaceutical delivery.
The Sematics® Solution: Context-Aware Monitoring with Fleet+
To solve the problem, Sematics® deployed its full Fleet+ solution, integrating:
- BLE temperature sensors inside refrigerated compartments
- Live GPS trackers with geofencing capabilities
- Dual dashcams, enabling real-time visibility of road and cabin conditions
- Cloud-based analytics platform to unify data, trigger intelligent alerts, and manage incidents
What made the difference wasn’t just hardware - it was the way Sematics® turned raw data into decision-ready insight.
Key Enhancements Included:
| Capability | Description |
| Smart Geofencing | The system recognised depot boundaries and suppressed alerts while vehicles were stationary with refrigeration inactive - removing unnecessary noise. |
| Refrigeration Awareness | Real-time detection of fridge on/off state allowed alerts to focus on in-transit failures, not planned idle periods. |
| Conditional Escalation | Alerts were triggered only when multiple factors aligned - such as refrigeration being off, in-transit movement, and temperature deviation lasting beyond a defined threshold. |
| Built-In Incident Workflows | Each excursion generated a structured response log with root cause analysis (RCA), CAPA actions, and optional dashcam review. |
| Weather Risk Integration | Live weather data was used to understand ambient temperature risk and support justifiable tolerance adjustments. |
The Outcome: Zero Rejections, Maximum Confidence
Over the six months following implementation, the transformation was striking:
- Rejected deliveries dropped from 1 per month to zero
- Alarm volumes fell by 72%, restoring trust in system alerts
- Every alert was traceable, explainable, and actionable
- QA teams could now provide data-backed evidence for every claim or investigation
- Drivers became engaged participants in incident reviews via dashcam footage and performance feedback
“Sematics® turned our vehicles into compliant, intelligent cold chain units. We now know exactly what happened, when, and why - and we haven’t had a rejected load since.”
Logistics Director, National Pharmaceutical Distributor
Why It Worked
Fleet+ wasn’t just a monitoring tool - it was a compliance engine. By combining environmental data, GPS tracking, refrigeration state, and driver behaviour into a unified platform, Sematics® empowered the client to prevent failure before it happened.
This wasn’t reactive damage control. This was real-time risk management, embedded into the operational DNA of the fleet.
To learn how Sematics® can help your cold chain fleet deliver with confidence, visit sematics.com.