Misplaced luggage trolleys at cruise ports is becoming a costly problem globally.
Gareth Mitchell (pictured), UK Partner Manager Heliot Europe has outlined how ports are using affordable IoT tracking technology to solve the problem of lost or misplaced luggage trolleys.
German-based Heliot Europe is the exclusive operator of the patented global Sigfox 0G network in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, the UK, Denmark and Liechtenstein.
For years, the assumption has been that this kind of problem comes with the territory, he said. But that’s starting to change, thanks to advances in IoT-enabled tracking devices and low-power connectivity that are making it much easier and cheaper to keep track of mobile assets like trolleys in ports.
When it becomes apparent that a fleet of trolleys has gone missing, someone has to stop what they’re doing to find them. Because nobody is quite sure where the missing trolleys went, the solution often ends up being ‘just order more’.
Mitchell explained that this quickly becomes an expensive business, as a single trolley typically costs between £200 and £500.
Many ports manage fleets of several hundred or even thousands of trolleys. Losing 10% of a fleet in a year could mean replacing 50 to 100 trolleys, costing anywhere from £10,000 to £50,000 annually.
Over 10 years, this could add up to half a million pounds or more, on replacements alone. And that’s before factoring in the hidden costs of staff time spent searching, the knock-on delays to operations, and the frustration felt by both employees and passengers, he said.
Add in the prospect of contractual penalties, whether formal loss charges or demurrage-style fees for mismanaged equipment, and the problem grows from a simple nuisance into a recurring financial liability.
With affordable IoT tracking devices now available, ports can gain visibility on their trolley fleets, reduce losses, and improve overall efficiency.
“Until recently, tracking trolleys didn’t seem like a realistic idea. The technology existed, but it was expensive, power-hungry, and mostly aimed at high-value goods. Sticking a GPS tracker on every asset felt like overkill. But that’s no longer the case. And the smart port market itself is growing, and expected to reach $7.12 bill by 2027, showing clear demand for these types of improvements in the industry,” he said.
Small, battery-efficient devices are now able to report a trolley’s location a few times a day, using a combination of connectivity options, including Sigfox and other low-power wide area network (LPWAN) options, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and WiFi sniffing, that don’t require much power to transmit.
That means months or even years of useful data can be accessed without constant maintenance or expensive infrastructure. The batteries on these devices typically last around five years without maintenance, he claimed.
“For trolley tracking, it’s not about following every movement in real time. What matters is knowing where they generally are, whether they’ve left the site or a particular geo-fenced area, and if they’re ending up in unexpected places.
“That level of insight is enough to solve most of the headaches ports are facing around trolley loss and availability. However, if a ‘black hole’ of vanishing trolleys is identified, operators can still selectively drill down and trace the journey in more detail when needed,” he said.
He added that with location data, the last user of a group of trolleys can be identified, where they were dropped off, and whether they were picked up again. This creates a shared reference point that makes collaboration easier and more productive.
He also said that solving the trolley problem is really about building a culture of visibility and responsiveness. And once that starts to take hold, the benefits ripple outward, to staff, to passengers, and to the port as a whole.
“For ports looking to make smarter decisions without major disruption, investing in trolley tracking could be the simplest, most effective win they haven’t yet considered,” he concluded.
