# The Bluetooth Temperature Puck: A Ten-Year Wireless Thermometer for Reefers and Coolers

The simplest cold chain record is a sealed Bluetooth puck placed in the load, reporting temperature to the truck's GO device from minus 40 to 85 degrees Celsius on a battery that lasts ten years. Here's what the Bluetooth temperature puck does, where it goes, and how it becomes the log a customer or an inspector asks for.

Source: https://www.highpointgps.com/resources/bluetooth-temperature-puck-cold-chain
By Stefano Mazzone, IT Technical Support Specialist — published 2026-09-18, updated 2026-09-19

## What It Is

A puck the size of a hockey puck's smaller cousin, sealed against water and washdown, with a temperature sensor and a Bluetooth Low Energy radio inside. It broadcasts its reading every few seconds and runs for about ten years on its internal battery. Placed in a reefer compartment, a cooler in a van, a tote or a pharmaceutical shipper, it reports the temperature of the load rather than the air at the reefer's return duct, which is the number that actually matters to the product.

## How the Reading Gets to the Platform

A GO device with the IOX-BT module, or a Bluetooth sensor gateway for trailers with many sensors, hears the puck and passes the reading to MyGeotab with the vehicle's position and time. There the temperature is a data stream like any other: rules alert the dispatcher and the driver when a reading leaves its band; reports show the temperature for every minute of a trip; a geofence at the customer marks the delivery, so the record shows the temperature on arrival. The puck itself stores nothing and needs no configuration beyond pairing.

![Temperature chart of a reefer trip showing the allowed band and an alert when a door opening pushed the load out of range](https://www.highpointgps.com/images/figures/cold-chain-temperature.webp)

*A reefer trip as the office sees it: the set point, the allowed band and the alert that fires the moment the load leaves it.*

## Where It Goes

Reefer trailers, one per compartment. Refrigerated vans and straight-truck bodies. Insulated totes and coolers on a van for pharmacy, meal and grocery delivery, where the puck rides with the tote. Walk-in coolers and freezers at the depot, reporting through whichever truck is parked nearby. Anywhere a customer contract or a food-safety plan asks for a continuous temperature record.

## Placement Tips and Alert Bands

Where the puck sits decides what it measures. In a reefer trailer, mount it at product height on the wall about two-thirds of the way back, away from the evaporator's discharge, so it reads the load and not the coldest air. In a tote, place it against the product rather than the lid. Set the alert band a degree or two wider than the product's specification and add a delay of a few minutes, so a door opening at a stop does not page the dispatcher, but a compressor failure does. Typical bands fleets configure:

| Product | Typical band | Alert delay |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Frozen foods | −23 °C to −15 °C | 10 minutes |
| Fresh meat and seafood | −2 °C to 4 °C | 5 minutes |
| Dairy and produce | 1 °C to 5 °C | 10 minutes |
| Pharmaceuticals (cold) | 2 °C to 8 °C | 2 minutes |
| Bakery and confectionery | 12 °C to 18 °C | 15 minutes |

## Setup

Pair the puck to the vehicle's GO device or gateway in MyGeotab, place it, and set the temperature band and alert rules. High Point GPS supplies and pairs the pucks and builds the cold-chain reports for food, beverage and pharmaceutical fleets in Quebec, Ontario and the northeastern US.

## FAQ

### What is the Bluetooth temperature puck?

A sealed Bluetooth Low Energy temperature sensor that reports readings from minus 40 to 85 degrees Celsius to a Geotab GO device, with a battery life of about ten years.

### Does it need wiring?

No. It is wireless and battery-powered; it pairs to the GO device or a sensor gateway.

### Can it go inside a tote or cooler?

Yes. It is small and sealed, and it reports the temperature of the load rather than the reefer's air.

### How does it alert?

MyGeotab rules on the puck's data stream notify the driver and dispatcher when the temperature leaves the set band.

### Is the record acceptable for food safety and customer audits?

Yes. The per-trip temperature log with position and time is the continuous record those audits ask for.

## Sources

- [Geotab Marketplace](https://marketplace.geotab.com/)
- [Canadian Food Inspection Agency: Safe Food for Canadians](https://inspection.canada.ca/en/food-safety-industry)