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How telematics helps fight elevator theft and accurately measure grain stock

Sometimes partners seek our assistance for challenging and unconventional requests from their customers. The elevator grain monitoring tailored for one of the largest agricultural co-ops in Russia fits the description: how to efficiently eliminate grain thefts and calculate net harvest, considering inevitable losses.

This task was efficiently completed with Fuel reports and IoT equipment. Indeed, telematics is not all fleets and cargo – first and foremost it is about data transparency and precision, remote management and automation for a huge variety of applications. How fuel-level reports tackle fuel-less issues will be explained in this article.

Radio-terminal-logo

Radioterminal is a developer, manufacturer and distributor of IoT equipment and devices. Navixy Partner since 2010.

Design basis: grain and money are leaking out

The customer addressed our partner Radioterminal with two issues. The first problem is employees’ stealing from the grain elevator. The product shrinks due to drying, dedusting and other processes and it allows dishonest employees to cover up theft schemes with natural losses. In addition, manual monitoring doesn’t allow for timely response to suspicious operations, to say nothing of the effective control over who and when entered the elevator for any time periods.

The other problem is also based on natural losses during crop processing and has no better consequences for elevator owners. Due to the discrepancies between initial and final grain weight, farmers can’t provide accurate quantity data and raise a bank loan for development. Thus the high-value product grants no extra benefits to its owners.

Holistic approach for maximum profit

We managed to find optimal solutions for each of the issues. An E-lock to efficiently fight grain theft. This intelligent device is installed on the elevator door to notify the platform on any interactions with the grain bin. This solution allows to generate reports for any time periods and triggers the alarm if the door is opened off the schedule.

E-lock by Jointech
E-lock by Jointech

However, this type of control is not enough for scheduled operating hours or to measure the discharged product. EasyTrek ultrasonic level sensor for bulk solids will cope with this task when connected to Galileosky GPS tracker.

EasyTREK ultrasonic level sensor
EasyTREK ultrasonic level sensor

This ultrasonic level sensor allows to monitor a current grain level at any given moment. The readings are provided online in the monitoring interface or can be downloaded as a report for any past periods.

The telematics platform will also notify about any “drains” and “refills” in the elevator. This data can be automatically generated for a customer to compare actual figures with the ones given in shipment document – another legitimate method to prevent grain frauds.

grain level report
Grain level report by Navixy

In case of a drastic level change a no-delay alert will be sent to managers and all responsible persons: it will be shown in the monitoring interface, and, if necessary, sent as a push-notification, SMS or an email.

Grain-theft-alert
Grain theft alert by Navixy

A great case for agriculture and beyond

The software and hardware combo was finalized just in time for the harvest season. While the total profit is to be measured much later, the initial benefits are already evident.

However EasyTrek level sensor is applicable not only for crops and grains, e.g flour or wheat, but other bulk solids too, for instance concrete, crushed rocks, ground ore and mixed products. If you want to adapt the case for your clients or have additional questions, don’t hesitate to reach us at [email protected] or in social media.

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