During the winter months, sand is essential to maintain traction and braking. This innovation can measure the real-time levels of sand within sandboxes back to a central reporting system, identifying sandboxes which are low, to allow them to be refilled. It means staff no longer have to check every sandbox and can be informed of those which are critically low. This reduces the risk to maintenance staff of having to walk along running lines, or where there could be a live third rail. 
The system reports via a radio link to a central gateway, so requires no expensive cabling to be installed between the underframe and the body.
Alerts can be programmed to inform maintenance staff of issues and sand consumption can be monitored along particular services or lines, using the on-board GPS, so helping the TOC inform Network Rail of lines which may require additional treatment.
The system can be retrofitted to any sandbox and integrated with WSP monitoring, if available on that vehicle.