In air cargo, visibility has always come with a price. Traditional tracking depends on fixed infrastructure: networks of readers, towers, and gateways installed at each airport to collect data from tagged containers and pallets. It is costly, slow to deploy, and limited to locations where hardware happens to exist. Once a ULD leaves a connected hub, operators often lose the real-time picture they need to manage utilization, position assets, and reduce avoidable costs.
AviusULD’s SmartULD changes that equation.
Global visibility with zero setup
SmartULD is a self-charging tracking solution that operates without on-site infrastructure. Each device generates its own power through kinetic energy harvesting, capturing movement and vibration to stay charged, then connects directly to the cloud using LTE with assisted GNSS outdoors and Wi-Fi positioning indoors to determine exact location. The result is real-time location and motion data from virtually anywhere in the world, without installing airport readers or maintaining local gateways.
Because the device communicates over existing global networks, coverage follows the ULD wherever it goes. A container that departs Bangkok, transits through Leipzig, and arrives in Los Angeles continues to report its status throughout the journey from shipper to receiver. Operators do not have to map rollouts airport by airport or wait for third parties to grant site access. The hardware is the network, and it works the moment a ULD moves.
Faster rollout, lower cost, proven scale
Infrastructure often slows digital transformation more than the technology itself. Multi-airport deployments typically require months of coordination with authorities and handlers, capital budgets for readers and power, insurance, and ongoing maintenance and monitoring. SmartULD removes those barriers. There is nothing to coordinate, build, or install. Fleets can be equipped quickly, and devices maintain connectivity as they move between airports and continents.
This infrastructure-free model also scales cleanly. As routes change or fleets grow, SmartULD devices simply travel with the operation. No site surveys, no additional hardware, no incremental contracts. The same approach unlocks benefits beyond location: improved utilization through better stock visibility anywhere and everywhere, fewer repositioning moves, faster root cause analysis for damages and losses, and reduced manual stock counts.
This is not theory. DHL Express is deploying 30,000 SmartULD devices as part of a first step in a major digital transformation program. Their objective is to use infrastructure-free visibility to cut costs and complexity while improving safety and sustainability. When a global integrator chooses to scale a solution in this way, it signals that the model works in the real world, across hubs and outstations – not just in controlled trials.
Future-ready by design
Since SmartULD rides on existing communication networks rather than fixed reader grids, it evolves through software updates instead of hardware replacement. Over-the-air updates, device management, and analytics run through the AviusConnect platform, so new capabilities reach the field without site visits. Airlines can start with global tracking and capturing motion-based events, then add value as needs grow: occupancy sensing to confirm whether containers are loaded, environmental telemetry for perishable and pharma shipments, and early warning of lithium-ion off-gassing through Fire Tag alarms.
The data foundation is equally flexible. Map views, geofences, alerts, heat maps, and movement paths support day-to-day decisions, while APIs feed control towers and planning systems. As datasets grow, machine learning can forecast ULD stock levels and predict demand at specific stations. The same device that delivers basic visibility today becomes a platform for continuous improvement tomorrow.
Contact us today to learn how AviusULD SmartULD can transform your cargo operations.
