Reefer truck and container monitoring for Dar es Salaam
Reefer monitoring follows the temperature inside a refrigerated truck or a reefer container from the Dar port plug to the customer. Trakora checks the box temperature against a set point, raises an excursion alert when it drifts too warm and a freeze alert when it drifts too cold, and flags the moment a probe stops reporting — so a warm load is caught on the road, not at the delivery door.
Reefer monitoring at a glance
- What it monitors
- Reefer trucks & reefer containers, by box temperature
- Lead rule
- temp_above_threshold
- Also owns
- temp_below_threshold · sensor_offline
- Set point band
- —1 set per cargo
- Reporting interval
- —1 tuned per deployment
- Alert channels
- SMS · WhatsApp · push
- Sits alongside
- Fleet (the truck) · container tracking (the seal)
- Reporting output
- Per-trip temperature record & compliance report
- Who it's for
- Reefer transporters, food & pharma distributors, port logistics
A warm load, a frozen load, a silent probe
A reefer keeps its own set point, but the set point is not the record. Trakora watches the actual box temperature on every reading and answers three questions: is it too warm, is it too cold, and is the sensor still talking?
The box drifted above the set point
The box temperature climbs above the band for that cargo — a reefer unit that tripped, a door held open at a stop, or a plug that lost power at the yard.
An excursion alert naming the truck or container, the reading and the time, while the load is still on the road and can be saved.
Call the driver to restart the unit or reseat the plug, and keep the alert as the timed record of how warm the load got and for how long.
The box drifted below the set point
The box goes colder than the band allows — a set point nudged too low freezes produce or damages a pharma load that must not drop below a floor.
A freeze alert, weighted the same as an over-temperature one, because a frozen pallet is as spoiled as a warm one and just as invisible.
Correct the set point and quarantine the affected cargo instead of delivering a load that has quietly gone out of spec.
The probe went quiet
The probe stops reporting — a flat battery, a knocked cable in a rough load, or a coverage gap on a long corridor.
An offline flag against that reefer, so the blind spot is known during the trip rather than found afterwards as a hole in the record.
Check the probe at the next stop, and read the trip record knowing exactly which stretch has no data — shown as a gap, never invented.
On the road and on the plug
A reefer load spends part of its life moving and part of it sitting on a plug at the port or a yard. Trakora monitors the same way in both — by the temperature inside the box.
Refrigerated trucks in transit
A probe in the trailer reports the box temperature the whole run, so an excursion on a Dar corridor is caught while the driver can still act on it.
/ temp-monitoringReefer containers on Dar port plugs
A reefer container waiting on a port plug is monitored by its box temperature the same way a moving trailer is — so a plug that quietly loses power shows up as a rising reading.
/ live-chartsAlongside the truck it rides on
Cold chain integrates with fleet, so the reefer's temperature and the vehicle's live position sit on one login instead of two disconnected systems.
/ coldchain + / fleetAlongside the container seal
The same reefer container can carry a container e-lock seal in the container-tracking module — one login for the seal and the temperature, though each is its own module.
/ container-trackingSetting up a reefer
From a probe in the box to a per-trip temperature record.
Fit a probe in the box
A temperature probe in the trailer or container reports to the gateway on the vehicle or at the plug.
Set the band for the cargo
The upper and lower limits are configured for what is loaded — chilled produce and a frozen load do not share one set point.
Watch it move and sit
Readings are checked continuously in transit and on the plug; too warm, too cold and sensor-offline each raise their own alert.
Close with the trip record
The run's temperature history and every excursion become a per-trip record for the customer and the file.
What this cannot do
What to expect
- Trakora monitors the temperature inside the box. It does not diagnose the reefer unit's mechanical health, its gas charge, or a genset's fuel — it tells you the load is going out of range, not why the machine failed.
- Monitoring a reefer on a port plug is done by box temperature, the same as a moving trailer. This page does not claim plug-power telemetry; a plug that loses power is inferred from the reading rising, not read from the socket.
- The set point band and the reporting interval are configured per cargo and per deployment and are marked as figures to be confirmed here — they are not fixed defaults in the module.
- Cold chain integrates with fleet in code; container tracking is a separate module. The two sit on one login, but they are distinct products, not a single bundled device.
- Readings report over GSM, so on a long corridor a coverage gap buffers and backfills with original timestamps when signal returns, and a genuine outage shows as sensor_offline.
Values marked — are figures to be confirmed: the set point band and the reporting interval are tuned per cargo and per deployment and are not fixed defaults in the module manifest, so no value is stated here as fact. Sensor accuracy figures depend on the probe hardware and are not published on this page.
Frequently asked questions
Does it monitor reefer trucks and reefer containers?
Both. A probe in the box reports the temperature whether it is a refrigerated trailer in transit or a reefer container sitting on a Dar port plug.
Will I know if a port plug loses power?
You will see the box temperature start to rise and a temp_above_threshold alert fire. The alarm is on the reading, not on the socket, so a warm-up is caught even without plug telemetry.
Does it tie into the truck and the container seal?
Cold chain integrates with fleet, so temperature and vehicle position share one login. A reefer container can also carry a container e-lock in the separate container-tracking module.
Does it diagnose the reefer unit itself?
No. It monitors the temperature inside the box and tells you the load is going out of range. It does not diagnose the refrigeration unit's mechanical health or genset fuel.
What happens over a coverage gap on the corridor?
Readings buffer and backfill with their original timestamps when signal returns. A genuine outage shows as sensor_offline, and the record shows the gap rather than a guess.
What set point do you use?
The band is set per cargo — chilled produce and a frozen load are configured differently. A fixed number is not published here because it is not a default in the module.
More in cold chain
Monitor your reefer fleet
Tell us how many reefer trucks or containers you run and we will scope monitoring in TZS, with a TRA-EFD VAT invoice and Swahili support.