01 · Cold chain
Cold-chain logistics fleets
Long-haul reefer operators where diesel for refrigeration is a six-figure annual line item per truck. Insights replaces estimated fuel savings with a per-trip, per-kWh measured number.
Reefer-integrated · COP-optimised · Asset-preserving · Verified monthly
Cut diesel from your refrigerated fleet — and prove it, month after month.
Lower fuel spend on every refrigerated reefer you run, with a savings figure your finance team and your auditors can both sign off on. eTRU Insights — included at no extra cost with every Elmech eTRU — measures the energy going into the refrigeration unit and converts it to litres displaced against an OEM-verified diesel baseline, so the monthly number traces back to telemetry, not assumptions.
Built for
Operators who need the savings on paper.
Fleets where diesel cost, cold-chain integrity, and sustainability reporting are board-level concerns — and where every saved litre has to be defensible to a CFO, an auditor, or a customer.
02 · Retail DC
Supermarket distribution centres
High-frequency depot-to-store routes with strict temperature SLAs. The portal proves cargo stayed in spec on every leg and quantifies the diesel saved on each run.
03 · Pharma
Pharma & vaccine distribution
Cold-chain temperature is non-negotiable. HACCP-grade cargo logs and auditable power-source classification give regulatory reviewers a single source of truth per truck.
04 · Last mile
Last-mile reefer operators
Short, frequent stops where a diesel reefer idles at every drop. Battery and solar do the work instead — and the portal shows exactly how many idle litres each route avoided.
Capabilities
What the portal does.
Six capabilities, each backed by a calibrated data stream. The interface is built so a fleet engineer can answer a question in two clicks and a board reviewer can audit a number in three.
01 · Live
Live power analysis
Spot a failing battery or a misconfigured reefer before it costs you a load.
Time-series charts of battery state of charge, power drawn by the refrigeration unit, depot grid use, and solar yield. View at one-minute resolution for live operations or one-hour for monthly review.
02 · Cargo
Cargo temperature
Walk into a HACCP audit with a complete, minute-by-minute cargo-temperature record for every truck.
Cargo zone temperatures are recorded from the refrigeration unit at one-minute resolution, independent of any external probes. Reports show min, mean, and max with configurable excursion alerts and exportable HACCP logs.
03 · Savings
Displacement model
See exactly which litres of diesel each truck didn't burn last month — and where the rand savings actually came from.
Calculated diesel litres displaced, grid-assist hours, and Rand savings per truck per month. Broken down by power source so you can see where the savings actually come from.
04 · Architecture
Power architecture diagram
One auto-generated diagram per truck — no chasing wiring schematics or stitching sensor lists together.
Auto-generated single-line diagram of each truck's power path — from solar and battery through to the refrigeration unit — with live status on every node.
05 · Quality
Data quality tracking
Know which numbers are defensible before you sign off on a savings figure or hand a report to finance.
Every data stream is monitored for coverage. Per-stream quality is visible at a glance, and gaps are flagged automatically rather than estimated across.
06 · Events
Event log & alarms
Catch unscheduled grid draws, off-pattern defrosts, and downtime events the moment they happen — not at month-end.
Timestamped log of power-source transitions (battery, grid, solar), refrigeration alarms with zero-alarm confirmation, and any operational fault events — visible per truck and across the fleet.
07 · Efficiency
Live COP optimisation
More cooling per kilowatt-hour means more diesel displaced per Rand of capex — verified, every minute.
Coefficient of Performance (COP) — kW of cooling delivered per kW of electrical input — is measured continuously from the refrigeration unit's own data stream. The portal learns each truck's operating envelope and tunes setpoint hysteresis, defrost timing and power limits to keep the unit in its most efficient band — without compromising cargo temperature.
08 · Uptime
Preemptive fault detection
A call from our engineers before the alarm — not an alarm instead of a delivery.
Because the portal reads the refrigeration unit's own fault registers — not just external probes — defrost issues, compressor anomalies, refrigerant warnings and sensor drift are visible in real time and in context. Our engineers see a developing fault before it becomes a stranded load, and your fleet operator gets a call instead of an alarm.
System architecture
From edge to portal.
Telemetry from each vehicle flows through a secure cloud ingestion layer into the eTRU Insights portal.
Every stream is monitored for coverage; gaps are flagged automatically in the portal.
Built to last
Engineered to outlive the truck.
A typical refrigerated truck is replaced every 8–10 years. An Elmech eTRU is engineered for two truck lifetimes.
7,000+ cycles
Battery design life
Automotive-grade LiFePO₄ cells engineered for over seven thousand full charge cycles — roughly 19 years of daily cycling in TRU duty. Even at a conservative end-of-life derate, expect 15+ years of useful service.
99%
Round-trip efficiency
Almost every kilowatt-hour put into the battery comes back out. Less energy wasted as heat means smaller battery banks, lighter trucks, and lower total cost of ownership.
5 years
Standard inverter warranty
The power-conversion platform that drives the refrigeration unit ships with a five-year standard warranty and a global repair-service network — backed by Elmech engineering in Mossel Bay.
−65% / −78%
Carbon and running cost vs diesel TRU
Independent component-level benchmarks place lithium-electric refrigeration at roughly 65% lower carbon and up to 78% lower running cost than diesel TRUs of equivalent duty. Elmech's portal verifies the figure per truck, every month.
These are not marketing numbers. The battery cycle life is the cell manufacturer's design specification, the inverter warranty is the OEM's standard term, and the running-cost figure is what Insights measures on live units. Every claim above is traceable back to a component datasheet or a telemetry stream.
Data sources
What the portal sees.
All data captured on the truck — power, cargo, and vehicle location — is unified in the portal.
Battery & power system
Battery state of charge, solar yield, and the power drawn by the refrigeration unit on the road and at the depot.
Refrigeration unit
Native integration with the refrigeration unit's controller. Setpoint, return-air and supply-air temperatures, compressor load, defrost cycles, alarms and fault codes are read directly from the head-unit data bus — not inferred from external probes. The portal is the single source of truth, and it matches what your driver sees on the reefer display.
Vehicle location
Routes, trip summaries, depot stops, and geofence alerts.
New sensors, automatically
Hardware added during the unit's life — an additional solar array, an extra temperature probe — appears in the portal without rework on existing units.
Deployment
From truck to portal in four steps.
Each step is a discrete handoff. Operators see verifiable progress from commissioning through to the first monthly savings report.
01
Hardware commissioned
The full eTRU stack — battery bank, solar array, inverters, and the sensors that feed the portal — is installed and commissioned on the truck.
02
Portal provisioning
The unit is registered in the portal with its asset details: depot, operator, refrigeration unit, and tariff configuration.
03
Data verification
From day one, every data stream is monitored for coverage. Gaps are flagged automatically so the savings figures stay honest.
04
Ongoing insights
Monthly savings reports, event-log reviews, and remote configuration updates. Engineering-grade reporting for fleet operators.
Savings methodology
How a kilowatt-hour becomes a Rand.
Diesel displacement is calculated against an OEM-verified consumption baseline for the equivalent diesel-powered refrigeration unit. Each minute of operation is classified by power source — battery, grid-assisted, or solar.
Hours and energy in each mode are converted to litres-displaced using the baseline, then to Rand using a configurable diesel price. Every number in the portal traces back to a measured source, so a board-report figure is auditable end to end.
| Month | On battery | Diesel (L) | Net savings | Solar % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 2026 | 34.84 h | 121.7 | R 3,409 | 39.1% |
| Mar 2026 | 125.9 h | 491.0 | R 13,749 | 24.8% |
| Apr 2026 | 137.2 h | 448.5 | R 12,557 | 25.5% |
| May 2026 | 0.82 h | 1.8 | R 528 | 1.2% |
Values are sourced from a single live unit and are illustrative — not a guarantee of future performance.
Estimate your fleet's savings.
Per-truck displacement scales eTRU.x's April 2026 figure (137.2 h on battery → 448.5 L diesel displaced) by your depot-run hours. Edit any field — the totals recalculate live.
Annual diesel displaced · fleet
—
Annual rand savings · fleet
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Payback period · per unit
Enter capex to see payback
Indicative only. Actual savings depend on duty cycle, depot infrastructure, and tariff. Payback assumes constant diesel price and run-hours, and excludes maintenance and downtime savings.
The efficiency loop
Why our savings are larger.
Most electric TRUs save diesel. Elmech also saves kilowatt-hours — continuously — by running the refrigeration unit at its most efficient operating point.
01 · Integrate
We read the reefer directly.
Insights connects to the refrigeration unit's native data stream — setpoint, return-air, supply-air, defrost state, compressor load, fault codes — not just to external probes bolted onto the body. The portal sees what the reefer thinks it is doing, in its own words.
02 · Measure
We measure COP, live.
With native reefer data on one side and battery-bank power draw on the other, the portal computes Coefficient of Performance every minute. Each truck builds a duty-cycle fingerprint: how much cooling it produces per kilowatt-hour spent, across ambient temperature, cargo type and route profile.
03 · Optimise
We tune the operating point.
Over-the-air configuration adjusts setpoint hysteresis, defrost intervals and power limits to keep the unit in its high-COP band. Cargo temperature limits are never compromised — the optimisation operates inside the HACCP envelope you specify.
The result: a typical Elmech eTRU delivers measurably more cooling per kilowatt-hour than an unoptimised electric reefer of the same hardware spec. Because every kilowatt-hour saved is also a litre of diesel not burned, the efficiency loop compounds directly into the monthly savings figure your board sees.
And because the Carrier diesel never has to run, the optimisation loop also preserves your reefer's mechanical asset life. The saving compounds twice: once in the diesel column, once on the balance sheet.
Asset preservation
Your reefer, preserved.
With an Elmech eTRU providing electric power to your Carrier refrigeration unit, the Carrier diesel engine sits in standby. Run hours fall to near zero — and so does the wear that drives mid-life overhauls, fuel-system rebuilds, and early retirement of an otherwise capable asset.
~0 h
Carrier diesel run-time
The Carrier unit's diesel engine is held in standby and only starts in defined fallback scenarios (e.g. extended off-grid layovers without solar recovery). On a typical depot-charged duty cycle it does not run at all.
6–7 yr → ∞
Engine overhaul interval
Diesel refrigeration units are typically overhauled every 6–7 years of operation. With run-hours at zero, overhaul intervals are pushed out indefinitely. The engine, fuel system and after-treatment age by calendar time only.
2×
Reefer service life
A well-maintained Carrier reefer is built to last one truck chassis. Without the wear of daily diesel operation, it can plausibly last two — preserving capex you already wrote down once.
This is the part of the eTRU value case that doesn't show up in a litres-displaced calculation. You don't just save fuel; you also delay the next refrigeration-unit replacement cycle, defer mid-life overhauls, and extend the working life of equipment your fleet has already paid for. The Insights portal logs Carrier engine run-time per truck, so this number is verifiable — just like the diesel savings.
Sustainability
Carbon, audited.
Each litre of diesel displaced equals approximately 2.68 kg of CO₂ avoided. Because every saved litre in Insights traces back to a measured kilowatt-hour, the portal produces an auditable, per-truck carbon trail — usable for sustainability reporting, customer disclosures, and scope-3 emissions accounting.
1 eTRU · annualised
~15 tonnes CO₂ avoided / year
Illustrative · based on eTRU.x run-rate
Sample reporting
A look inside the portal.
Three views fleet engineers and operators use day to day.
elmech-eng.com / fleet / map
Live
fleet / eTRU.x / power
30 d
fleet / eTRU.x / savings
Verified
Technical specifications
At a glance.
| Data captured | Battery & power, refrigeration unit, vehicle location |
|---|---|
| Sampling resolution | 1 minute (live), 1 hour (aggregated) |
| Cargo logging compliance | HACCP-grade exports (CSV, PDF) |
| Hosting region | South Africa |
| Update mechanism | Over-the-air configuration; firmware updates via service visit |
| Browser support | Latest two versions of Chrome, Edge, Safari, Firefox |
Frequently asked
Questions we hear from fleet engineers.
How is diesel displacement verified?
Each minute of operation is classified by power source — battery, grid, or solar. Hours and energy in each mode are converted to diesel litres displaced using an OEM-verified consumption baseline for the equivalent diesel-powered refrigeration unit, then to Rand using a configurable diesel price.
Every number traces back to a measured source — the power draw on the refrigeration unit, the solar yield, and the OEM baseline — so the savings figure is auditable end to end.
What happens if a telemetry stream goes offline?
Each stream is monitored for coverage from day one. Gaps are flagged automatically in the portal — the unit detail view shows live coverage percentage per stream, and longer outages raise an event in the alarm log.
Savings calculations exclude periods with insufficient coverage rather than estimating across the gap.
Can the portal export HACCP-compliant cargo logs?
Yes. Cargo temperature is recorded directly from the refrigeration unit at one-minute resolution, independent of any external probes. HACCP-grade exports are available as CSV and PDF for any reporting period.
How is data secured in transit and at rest?
All customer data is client-confidential. The portal is hosted in South Africa, access is gated by authenticated login, and each customer is scoped to their own fleet — no customer can see another customer's data.
Telemetry transport and storage are managed by Elmech and are not shared with third parties.
Can we integrate the portal data into our own BI tool?
Yes. The portal exposes an API for programmatic access to a customer's fleet data, and any view in the portal can be exported to Excel.
Integration details are scoped per customer on request.
Does Insights work alongside our existing telematics (Geotab, MiX, Cartrack, etc.)?
Yes. eTRU Insights is a parallel layer focused on power and cargo — battery state of charge, refrigeration energy draw, solar yield, cargo temperature — not a replacement for fleet telematics. Your existing Geotab, MiX, or Cartrack stack continues to handle vehicle tracking, driver behaviour, and trip reporting unchanged.
The Insights API can push savings figures, diesel displaced, and HACCP exports into your existing BI dashboards so the numbers live alongside the rest of your fleet KPIs.
What happens to our data if we end the contract?
Your fleet data is yours. On request at contract end, Elmech provides a full export of historical telemetry, savings records, and HACCP cargo logs in CSV and PDF, and deletes the customer's data from Elmech systems once the export is acknowledged.
Which refrigeration units does Insights integrate with?
Insights integrates natively with mainstream OEM refrigeration units fitted to Elmech eTRUs, reading setpoint, return-air and supply-air temperatures, compressor load, defrost cycles, alarms and fault codes directly from the head-unit data bus. Compatibility for additional makes and models is added on request and confirmed before commissioning.
What is COP optimisation and how does it affect my savings?
Coefficient of Performance (COP) is the kW of cooling delivered per kW of electrical input. Higher COP means more cooling per kilowatt-hour, which means more diesel displaced per Rand of capex. Insights measures COP continuously and tunes operating parameters — within the HACCP envelope you specify — to keep each truck in its high-COP band. The result is shown in the monthly savings report.
Does the Carrier diesel engine still run while we use an Elmech eTRU?
On a typical depot-charged duty cycle, no. The Elmech eTRU supplies electric power to the refrigeration unit, and the Carrier diesel engine is held in standby. It only starts in defined fallback scenarios — for example, an extended off-grid layover with no solar recovery — which Insights records as a discrete event. Engine run-hours per truck are visible in the portal alongside the monthly diesel-savings figure, so overhaul intervals can be evidenced rather than estimated.
Talk to an Elmech engineer.
A 20-minute technical call to map your fleet, vehicles, and TRU models against what the portal can verify on day one.
Take the one-pager to your team.
A printable summary of what eTRU Insights measures, how the savings figure is built, and what a 12-month deployment looks like — ready for an internal review.
Hosted in South Africa · Your data stays yours.