Enhanced digital freight offer
Edoardo La Ficara, Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer for Operation, Service & Maintenance, Hitachi Rail, said: “Hitachi Rail is focused on growing its digital offer to develop data-driven solutions to meet our customer’s complex challenges. Our exclusive partnership with IMT delivers this and enables Hitachi to provide an enhanced digital freight offer across the globe, with a strong initial focus on European and North American markets. “This solution will enable operators and maintainers to be aware of vehicles’ position and status at all times. This will provide a radical evolution for the freight industry, whose railcars are overwhelmingly without any telematics or monitoring whatsoever.” Specific predictive asset maintenance monitoring
IMT will now exclusively offer the Perpetuum sensor solution in the rail freight market, which will further broaden IMT's full portfolio in asset and cargo monitoring for the international rail market. IMT's portfolio for rail now includes sensors that verify the exact location of rail wagons, the loading status, the open/close status of doors and hatches, the temperature and pressure of the load, and the health status of bogies and wheel sets. Commenting, Dethmer Drenth, Managing Director and Founder of IMT, said: “This partnership adds a significant value to our railcar market offering as we expand our renowned assets and cargo related monitoring to specific predictive asset maintenance monitoring with the Hitachi/Perpetuum sensor. In that way we create a holistic view of the railcar above and below the axle, alerting the asset and cargo owner on a need-to-know and managing-by-exception basis.” European and North American markets
The integration of digital technology has a major role to play in enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of operations, train maintenance and safety. The partnership follows the global mobility firm’s strategy of expanding its digital capabilities, including Hitachi’s Lumada platform that uses AI and the Internet of Things to turn data into actionable business insights. The partnership’s initial focus for the new digital service will be in European and North American markets. Hitachi Rail is already an established provider to freight operators in North America, where over 34.5 million carloads and intermodal units were transported in 2021, a growth of 4.8% compared to 2020. If you have any questions about this change, please feel free to get in touch with your (sales) contact at IMT.
Best regards, Bernard Heylen
Sales director | 
