While the world battles the spread COVID-19, it also acknowledged the establishment of IoT Day on April 9 by the Internet of Things Council.

The founders’ goal in 2010, was to rally the IoT community to share and discuss the developments and applications that the IoT has enabled by putting IP addresses on “things” and enabling intelligent automated communications between devices, and devices and the cloud to gain insights.

To mark past IoT Days, companies have hosted hands-on tech days, hackathons, makers’ events, and showcased relevant work in labs or technology demos.

With the Coronavirus pandemic across the world, this year, the IoT council acknowledged that technologists including the media are working from home.

Online retailers are also promising faster and faster delivery times amid lockdown in many countries and in some cases, standard next-day shipping.

But, as big hauls of goods zip across a country’s roads, cargo theft becomes a major concern.

Exact numbers are hard to come by, as many incidents of stolen goods are either unreported or underreported.

In recent years, South Africa has also seen a surge in cargo theft as well as cash in transit heists.

The logistical problem is that a retailer has limited options to remotely control access to their cargo while it is in transit.

But, a startup in India is using the Internet of Things (IoT) to help cut down theft on the road.

YuTu Electronics is using IoT to create a network of smart locks that monitor access to cargo fleets, based on predefined rules of authorization.

The locks are managed and monitored using a cloud-based, IoT platform that provides real-time alerts to potential cargo theft.

YuTu says the solutions are targeted to the banks, financial institutions, cellular tower Stations defense, homes & companies among other industries.

Faizel Patel

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)