We’ve all seen it: a lonely shopping trolley, marooned in the middle of nowhere – often in a stream or park, or the most obscure and unexpected places. It means no harm. But it is out of place; it is not where it belongs. It is not serving customers, and it is not supporting the quest to bring in revenue. In fact, it’s the complete opposite. Generally it’s a fly-tipping eye-sore, worthy of hefty fines from councils. Shoppers can’t use it, and it pollutes the environment. And during peak trading seasons, like Christmas, where footfall is highest, its absence is most keenly felt by everyone. Gareth Mitchell, UK Partner Manager at Heliot Europe, shares common problems with trolley management in retail, and how more effective IoT-based tracking can reduce fines and ensure trolleys are better maintained and managed by retailers.
In efforts to tackle the issue of abandoned shopping trolleys, the UK government has empowered local councils to impose penalties on retailers for abandoned shopping trolleys found within the community, as stipulated in the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005. It states: “If it appears to the authority that a particular person is the owner of the trolley, the authority may charge him a sum in respect of the removal, storage, and disposal of the trolley.” The penalty charge varies from council to council.
Bolton Council charges supermarkets £5 per day for each trolley recovered and placed in storage. A charge of £50 for the initial collection by the council is also payable, with a £100 fee retailers before the trolley can be returned. Canterbury City Council plans to hike fines on supermarkets for the sheer volume of abandoned trolleys that it finds in rivers and streets. While many councils strive to combat this problem by imposing penalties, others provide retailers with a grace period to locate abandoned trolleys, and a deadline to recover or remove them.
Further, culprits abandoning trolleys could face fly-tipping charges, which have other penalties associated with it. Penalty fines could see offenders paying up to £1,000, depending on the situation. All that said, there are effective reporting services too – like Trolleywise – that work in partnership with councils and retailers to try and solve this problem. Clearly, this issue raises a straightforward question for retailers: why not just explore greater measures to track trolleys?
Asset visibility equals better fleet management
If it’s possible to track cars and phones, then it must be possible to track trolleys more effectively too, right? Aside from managing issues related to theft and misplacement of trolleys, these hardworking pieces of equipment experience frequent wear and tear that includes frames bending, and wheels and handles breaking. This leads to ongoing maintenance expenses that need to be managed and accounted for by retailers.
Then there are the issues associated with storing and organising trolleys. Bays are required to keep them secure. Staff is needed to gather trolleys that go missing, or which need to be placed back in bays for customers to use – a manual process of ‘hide and seek’ that could easily be streamlined. This raises the question for retailers again: is there a more efficient way to manage trolleys? This is where IoT can help.
IoT for asset tracking and trolley transparency
Fitting trolleys with robust sensor technology and connecting them to a data network, or cloud management application, can provide retailers with greater visibility and transparency on their fleet of trolleys. Sensors can provide detail around where trolleys are located: are they within the store, in the storage bays, or are they moving? Geo-fences can be set up to track these assets within a specific area or premises – have they left the fence boundary? Is it worth sending someone to investigate or retrieve it?
In addition, tracking trolley movement within a retail store could also provide valuable insights to retailers and management teams about their stores. In much the same way Google Maps provides insights to drivers about traffic status and journeys, what if insights from trolley movement could provide valuable insights about consumer behaviour within retail stores to retailers, that could inform how to sell better? Or, what if trolley usage could be shared with consumers via their loyalty apps, to inform them about how busy a store is?
Take this a step further, perhaps this could be used to drive and support marketing efforts to consumers either in store or who are about to visit a particular store? Sensor data could also provide information about trolley mileage. This could inform service strategies and support preventative maintenance on wheel changes, for example. Or, what if location data showed that a handful of trolleys just never get used? IoT data could inform teams to review these trolleys. Does the store really need these trolleys, can they be redistributed to other stores?
Connecting trolleys to the data network
While sensors enable the asset tracking that is required and associated with trolleys, they need to be able to connect to a data network. Although there are many connectivity options available for retailers to consider, it’s usually best to use a form of LPWAN connectivity (Low-Power Wide-Area Network).
LPWAN typically offers a more consistent, cost effective form of network connectivity to run and manage – it is also particularly effective in hard-to-reach locations, like underground carparks, where cellular connectivity seldom reaches. Depending on how the network is configured and the kind of LPWAN used, the range of connectivity varies from a few kilometres to 1000 kilometres. The data transmission that is necessary to track assets in the field is kept to a minimum too; this means data costs are low, and that battery usage is optimised.
Further, the supporting devices are robust enough to withstand operating within the British climate and retail environments. Crucially, the batteries in these devices don’t need changing frequently; seeing them last several years, as the trolleys are used by the public. Incidentally, this reduces maintenance costs too.
An expensive problem, easy solution
A new trolley costs around £150 to £400. This makes managing trolley fleets effectively an imperative for retailers. Especially when fines from local councils are potentially on the cards for misplaced trolleys – or when replacements for lost or damaged trolleys have the potential to diminish retail budgets.
Moreover, you only have to consider the global scale of this issue from a financial standpoint. The Food Marketing Institute in Washington D.C. says the annual cost of shopping trolley theft worldwide is $800 million, aside from the impact on the environment. Therefore, addressing the issue of abandoned shopping trolleys and the associated impact on the environment is essential for retailers and communities to tackle. While fines and penalties encourage responsibility, more proactive solutions are available.
Using IoT technology to track trolleys offers retailers a comprehensive, data-driven approach to trolley asset tracking management. With geo-fencing, real-time location tracking, and preventative maintenance insights, retailers can reduce lost trolleys, improve operational efficiency, and even gain valuable customer behaviour insights. Additionally, IoT helps retailers ensure their trolley fleets are well-maintained, accessible to shoppers, and kept within designated boundaries—ultimately benefiting both the business and the community.
Heliot Europe is a leading provider of IoT connectivity solutions in Europe, specializing in the provision of the Sigfox 0G network to enable energy-efficient, long-range communication for IoT devices.
