Brussels, Belgium: Transport professionals have honoured the newly launched Thermo King SLXe range of transport refrigeration units with the inaugural Grand Prix award for Best Innovation in Transport and Logistics.
The Cold Chain Forum, which was supported by major professional associations and the only forum dedicated to the cold chain in its entirety, developed this brand new award event within the French market to recognize and reward cutting-edge innovations in the cold chain industry. The award event last month was jointly organized by the French publication, La Revue-Pratique du Froid.
A professional jury selected a list of 17 innovations from among those submitted. Then, industry professionals cast their votes online to pick the finalists in the six different categories.
“This award recognizes the innovative design of the SLXe and how this new solution fulfills Cold Chain Forum priorities, including consistent reliability, improved traceability and energy efficiency and minimal carbon footprint,” said Michel Poinsignon, product leader trailer and rail refrigeration for Thermo King in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, accepting the award.
“The SLXe is the latest evolution in a proven line of Thermo King solutions that meet these industry demands,” he says.
“While the SLX was already the most fuel efficient solution in the category, the SLXe multi-temperature units now offer the electronic throttling valve (ETV) technology previously only available on the single-temperature version of the SLX unit. ETV technology makes the multi-temperature units 8 percent more fuel efficient. They also offer 7% greater refrigeration capacity.
“The SLXe provides innovative features that ease installation, ensure reliable performance and optimize both logistics and data management. These include fleet tracking and the ability to retrieve diagnostics using a USB port. The SLXe is one of the industry’s first units to offer dual-mode cellular/WiFi monitoring capabilities and provides the only telematics device that is factory installed and supported,” Poinsignon says.
“The previous trailer range was already the quietest of its category and the SLXe trailer unit framework has been redesigned to further reduce structure-borne vibrations. This provides greater driver comfort, especially during night delivery. It also lowers mechanical stress to contribute to increased unit life expectancy and positively impact resale value.”
