Big Y Improves Refrigerated Grocery Distribution

Big Y Foods, one of New England’s largest independently owned supermarket chains, is enhancing its fleet logistics with new trailers equipped with Carrier Transicold X4 7300 refrigeration units and the eSolutions platform for remote monitoring and control. Carrier Transicold is a part of Carrier Global Corp., a Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based global provider of sustainable and intelligent building and cold-chain solutions. 

The grocer has begun the replacement of two-thirds of its 70 refrigerated trailers through Miami-based Ryder System Inc., with Carrier Transicold of Southern New England providing the refrigeration units and telematics support. Meanwhile, the eSolutions platform provides continuous visibility of Big Y’s cold-chain assets via a centralized data stream that not only monitors trailer temperatures, location and movement, but also enables remote control of refrigeration units.

“We have a very robust program for monitoring temperatures and conducting food safety checks,” noted Steve Creed, Big Y’s VP of logistics and distribution. “The Carrier Transicold telematics system is an important contributor to that initiative.”

As well as tracking trailer temperature, the eSolutions platform does the following:

• Provides notifications as trailers come and go from geofenced areas assigned to Big Y’s distribution center and key locations within its retail network.
• Finds unused or underused trailer assets, including those dropped by Big Y’s third-party logistics provider at vendor partners, where they may be idle for a few days until loaded.
• Monitors trailer precooling time to minimize fuel waste.
• Optimizes refrigeration unit performance for fuel efficiency and product protection.
• Helps avoid emergency call-out situations in which a refrigeration unit must be reprimed because it ran out of fuel. Fuel level monitoring sensors send dispatchers low-fuel alerts via eSolutions, and units can be programmed to automatically shut down before they run out of fuel.
• Shortens refrigeration unit uptime through the use of continuous analytic and diagnostic information provided about unit performance, as well as immediate alerts if a warning condition occurs on a unit in service.

The eSolutions system’s ability to boost energy efficiency is key to Carrier’s progress in reducing customers’ carbon footprint by more than 1 gigaton while also achieving carbon neutral operations by 2030, as outlined in the company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals.

Big Y operates 85 locations throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut, including 71 supermarkets, Fresh Acres Market, Table & Vine Fine Wines and Liquors, and 10 Big Y Express gas and convenience locations, with almost 12,000 employees. The Springfield, Mass.-based company is No. 76 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.