New GPS tracking devices made by downtown L.A. company GTX Corp. can be turned off remotely and turn themselves back on based on how high they are or how fast they’re moving.
That means they can be packed with cargo in the belly of a plane, be put into sleep mode before takeoff and automatically wake up upon landing. Local logistics company MNX plans to use the devices to track transplant organs and other sensitive cargo shipped through the air, giving hospitals and labs the ability to know when their shipments have landed and when they should arrive.
“They can tell the hospital that the shipment is coming, that it’s a block away,” said Patrick Bertagna, chief executive of GTX.
Scott Cannon, chief executive of Inglewood’s MNX, already uses similar tracking devices from another company, but he said GTX’s trackers are sturdier, more compact and were designed specifically for MNX.
“It offers an affordable solution to our clients’ needs,” Cannon said. “Shipments can be monitored and tracked in real time, at all times.”
For now, GTX’s trackers are only approved by two airlines, cargo carriers CargoLux Airlines International SA of Sandweiler, Luxembourg, and AirNet of Columbus, Ohio, but Bertagna said the company will seek approval from others.
GTX’s biggest market is in tracking devices for seniors with dementia and Alzheimer’s who might wander off. It partners with a company that makes shoes with embedded GPS trackers. But approval from airlines could help GTX get into the luggage business.
“About 8 million pieces of luggage every year get lost,” Bertagna said. “With this, you could go online and find out your baggage is in whatever city. Then the airline can call that airport and say, ‘Ship that to New York on the next flight.’”
Public Transit Prius
A hybrid car uses the energy from braking to create electricity, which in turn charges a battery that powers the vehicle.
Cerritos company Vycon is taking that same idea – at a much larger scale – to help the county transportation authority cut its energy bills. The company, part of Cerritos’ Calnetix Technologies LLC, plans to install a system at the Westlake-MacArthur Park subway station that will capture energy from braking trains on their way in, then turn that energy into electricity that will help trains accelerate on their way out.
Instead of storing energy in a battery, Vycon’s system will use a flywheel – a 200-pound piece of spinning steel. Energy from the braking train will rev the flywheel up to nearly 20,000 rotations per minute, powering an electric generator.
Patrick McMullen, Vycon’s chief technical officer, said a flywheel makes more sense than a battery in a train station setting, both because it can capture and release energy more quickly and because it’s longer lasting.
“With batteries, you have to replace them every three to four years,” he said. “A flywheel is a 20-year product.”
The system, which will be tested and monitored for a year after installation, would reduce the amount of power needed to run trains and possible reduce the need for electrical substations built along subway lines to provide power.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority this month awarded Vycon a $3.6 million contract for the project, with most of that funding coming from the federal government.
The system should be operational in about a year. If it proves successful, Vycon President Frank DeLattre said it could lead to additional sales to transit agencies.
“We see this could be tremendous upside in our business,” DeLattre said. “The market is billions of dollars.”
Gear Shift
A truck driver training program sponsored by the Harbor Trucking Association, a port trucking trade group, is set to start in March and could train about 100 drivers in the next two years.
The program, developed by the association, port terminal operators and Long Beach City College, aims to address a shortage of qualified drivers hauling cargo out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
The number of port truckers fell from 18,000 in 2007 to about 11,000 last year. The twin ports’ Clean Truck Program, which requires the use of cleaner, more expensive trucks, forced out drivers who couldn’t afford new rigs, and new federal rules that took effect in 2009 blocked undocumented immigrants and drivers who’ve committed certain types of crimes from working the ports.
Fred Johring, president of the industry association, said trucking companies will help select students for the program, provide trucks and training locations, and promise to hire qualified students who make it through the training. The program will take between four and eight weeks to complete.
Staff reporter James Rufus Koren can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 225.
