You know where your cargo is during transit. Your freight forwarder’s TMS handles that. But where are your containers, ULDs, and tools three weeks after the last delivery? If the answer is “we’re not sure,” you’re looking at the asset visibility gap the Griffin Air was built to close.
The Griffin Air is an airline-certified asset tracking device from Digital Matter. Here’s how Griffin Air supports logistics operations in practice: not by tracking a shipment from A to B, but by tracking the physical asset through every stage of its lifecycle.
What the Griffin Air Actually Is
Quick disambiguation first. Search “Griffin Air” and you’ll land on at least four unrelated results: a medical drone project in Luxembourg that completed its first blood sample transport in July 2025, a UK-based 3PL provider, an industrial VTOL drone platform, and an IATA-registered freight forwarder called Griffin & Company, operating since 1983. None of those are the subject of this article.
The Griffin Air is a compact, battery-powered asset tracker. Here are the specs that matter for logistics:
| Feature | Spec | Operational Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Certification | Airline-certified | Stays on assets through air freight without removal |
| Battery | 2+ years (3× AA) | Field-swappable, no chargers or docking stations required |
| Protection | IP67 | Sealed against dust, survives water immersion |
| Short-range | Bluetooth 5.2 | Indoor zone detection, scan-based workflows |
| Reporting | Configurable parameters | Balances update frequency against battery and data cost |
Small enough to mount on a ULD or container. Tough enough for tarmac heat, cargo holds, and port yards. Designed to report for years without anyone needing to touch it.
Shipment Tracking Ends at Delivery. Asset Tracking Doesn’t.
This distinction shapes everything else, so it’s worth pausing here.
Shipment tracking follows a consignment from origin to destination. Once the carrier confirms delivery, the tracking job is done. Customer has the goods. System moves on.
Asset tracking follows the physical thing that carried the shipment: the container, the pallet, the ULD, the MRO cart. These don’t vanish at delivery. They sit at a customer site. They get repositioned. They go missing. They cost money every day they go unaccounted for.
The Griffin Air is built for this second job. Its multi-year battery and rugged build mean it stays on a returnable asset through dozens of cycles without swaps, recharging, or operational overhead. It keeps reporting location, movement, and dwell time on its own.
This isn’t theoretical. In medical logistics, continuous tracking has been shown to reduce supply stockouts by up to 60%. Different domain, same principle: when you know where assets are at all times, waste shrinks and decisions get faster.
Most operations I work with don’t struggle with visibility during transit. They struggle with the other 60% of the lifecycle: dwell at customer sites, repositioning legs, idle time in yards. That’s the window where assets become invisible, and that’s where the Griffin Air earns its place.
Five Operational Problems Griffin Air Solves
Air freight compliance without the workaround
Most commercial GPS trackers can’t legally stay on assets during air freight legs. They need to come off before loading, which punches a visibility gap in the highest-cost segment of the journey. Understanding Griffin Air certified tracking technology clarifies how airline certification specifically addresses this compliance barrier.
The Griffin Air’s airline certification means it stays mounted through air, ground, and intermodal transitions. No removal, no re-attachment, no per-shipment compliance paperwork. One device, full cycle.
For operations that specifically require DO-160 certification (the stricter environmental standard for airborne electronics), the Thingfox T2 carries that rating. For most air cargo use cases, the Griffin Air’s airline certification covers what’s needed at a lower total cost.
Battery life that doesn’t become a second problem
A tracker with a 90-day battery means your team is running a battery replacement program four times a year across your entire fleet. At 500 containers, that’s 2,000 battery interventions annually. Your visibility solution just became a maintenance headache.
Three standard AA batteries. 2+ years of operation. No proprietary chargers, no docking stations, no recalls to base. When it’s time, any field operator swaps them in under five minutes. This is what lets you scale from 50 tracked assets to 5,000 without scaling your support team with it.
IP67 for real logistics environments
A tracker that fails in rain isn’t solving a logistics problem. IP67 means the Griffin Air is fully sealed against dust and survives temporary water immersion (up to 1 meter for 30 minutes). Tarmac in August, cargo holds at cruise altitude, port yards in February. The device doesn’t care.
Worth checking, because lower-cost trackers frequently skip this standard and fail in exactly these conditions.
Bluetooth 5.2 where GPS goes dark
GPS is unreliable indoors. In MRO hangars, cargo terminals, and warehouse staging areas, BLE 5.2 picks up the slack. It enables proximity-based workflows: automatic check-in when an asset arrives at a depot, zone-level detection through fixed BLE gateways, and peer-to-peer presence awareness between tagged assets.
This is the layer that keeps your fleet visible after assets move under a roof. Without it, you’re blind in exactly the locations where assets tend to disappear from records.
Configurable reporting that matches operational rhythm
A container in active transit and a container parked in a yard for six weeks don’t need the same update interval. The Griffin Air supports adjustable tracking parameters, including special configurations for specific scenarios: higher frequency during movement, lower frequency at rest.
This extends battery life, cuts connectivity costs, and reduces data noise without sacrificing the position updates that actually drive decisions. It sounds simple, but the ability to tune reporting to your actual operation (rather than accepting a one-size-fits-all default) is what separates a scalable deployment from a noisy one.
Who Gets the Most Value From Griffin Air
The Griffin Air isn’t the right fit for every operation. If you ship goods once and the packaging isn’t coming back, a disposable shipment label makes more economic sense. This device pays for itself in operations where assets cycle back.
Airlines and ground handlers use it to track ULDs, dollies, and ground support equipment across airports. Every undocumented ULD sitting at an outstation is working capital stuck in limbo. These challenges reflect broader aerospace industry asset visibility trends driving adoption of persistent tracking solutions. MRO facilities face a similar problem with tools and components rotating between maintenance sites and customers, where BLE-based scan workflows replace manual counts in GPS-dark hangars.
Freight forwarders running reusable container pools have even more at stake. Cycle time, dwell time, utilization rate: these are the numbers that determine whether a container pool is an asset or a liability. The Griffin Air provides those numbers without requiring someone to physically check each box.
Port operators and logistics providers deal with the roughest conditions and the least access to devices for maintenance. Long battery life and IP67 protection matter disproportionately here. A device that works in a port yard for two years without intervention isn’t a luxury. It’s the minimum viable approach for asset tracking at that scale.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Griffin Air the same as Griffin & Company Logistics?
No. The Griffin Air is an asset tracking device manufactured by Digital Matter. Griffin & Company Logistics is a separate entity: an IATA-registered freight forwarder operating since 1983. They share part of a name and nothing else.
Can the Griffin Air remain on assets during flights?
Yes. It is airline-certified, meaning it can stay mounted on containers, ULDs, or equipment transported via air cargo without removal for regulatory compliance. Operations requiring the stricter DO-160 standard should evaluate the Thingfox T2 as an alternative.
How long does the battery actually last?
Rated at 2+ years on 3 standard AA batteries under normal operating conditions. Actual life varies with reporting frequency. Assets tracked at high intervals (every few minutes) drain faster; assets in low-frequency idle mode can exceed the rated 2 years.
What does IP67 mean in practical logistics terms?
Fully sealed against dust ingress and capable of surviving temporary water immersion up to 1 meter for 30 minutes. In logistics terms: reliable performance in rain, extreme heat, freezing conditions, dusty yards, and cargo holds with no added housing required.
How does Bluetooth 5.2 help beyond GPS?
GPS doesn’t work reliably indoors. BLE 5.2 provides zone-level asset detection inside warehouses, hangars, and terminals through fixed gateways. It also enables scan-based check-in and checkout workflows that replace manual inventory counts.
Can Griffin Air work alongside other tracking devices in a mixed fleet?
Yes. It integrates into broader tracking platforms and coexists with other Digital Matter devices (Oyster3, Remora2, Hawk) in the same fleet. The key is platform-level integration, which is where working with an experienced integrator saves deployment time and avoids rework. Talk to our team if you’re planning a multi-device rollout.
If your container pool, ULD fleet, or returnable assets feel invisible after delivery, that’s exactly the gap the Griffin Air closes. Explore our full range of asset tracking solutions or reach out at info@datanetiot.com to walk through your deployment.
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