Pack n Send Blog

RFID technology is being tested and implemented for both freight and cargo shipping. Both location monitoring and temperature monitoring of shipments are being tested. Pack n send is supplying this article from Handy Shipping  Guide as a service to our customers.

 WORLDWIDE – Many freight forwarders and shipping lines are familiar by now with the relatively new technology known as RFID, radio-frequency identification. There are three systems employed in the identification of tags carrying chips loaded with whatever information is required; passive, active and battery assisted passive. Up to now their use has been limited to such things as identifying cargo to upload information such as current position etc. into freight tracking systems using mostly passive chips, but now the potential uses of these systems is being explored more thoroughly.

At the cutting edge of RFID is German company Siemens who are investigating in several different fields, all relevant to the freight and haulage industries. Since 2008 scientists at Siemens Corporate Technology have been exploring a research project known as SKRIBT — (German acronym for “Protection of Critical Bridges and Tunnels on Roads”) in which ten partners from government agencies, industry, and research institutes are participating in a three year scheme funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research.

Put simply when a truck hits a bridge, or ignites in a tunnel, the damage can be almost incalculable; when a truck caught fire in the Eurotunnel under the English Channel in November 1996 temperatures reached 1,000 °Celsius, causing immense structural damage and suspending full operations for six months. The problem is being addressed by using thermal imaging technology but the situation is greatly compounded when hazardous goods are involved.

By using new RFID transponders developed by Siemens, sensors can analyse the information on a trucks Hazchem plate which carries the relevant chip. This can be done several kilometres before the tunnel entrance and the information sent instantly to the tunnel control centre which is then equipped to respond in exactly the right way should an incident occur or to prevent the truck entering if other unsuitable goods are already transiting the tunnel.

The new system is ‘active’ and can transmit its signal to the unit’s reading device over a distance of around 50 metres as opposed to a conventional ‘passive’ system, with a six metre range, as is used in many cargo monitoring systems. The hazardous plate’s chip has a built-in battery and transmits in the high-frequency range of 2.45 gigahertz. To ensure the battery lasts as long as possible, the transmitter in the transponder sleeps until it’s woken by a radio pulse issued by the reading device at the checkpoint.

Siemens use a cryptochip employing an encryption technique they previously developed for passive RFID chips which ensures the RFID data cannot be intercepted or falsified. This is not the only way RFID is finding its way into the supply chain however.

In a separate project and in cooperation with other partners Siemens are pioneering an RFID system that provides continuous monitoring of sensitive consignments. The technology is already used by DB Schenker to monitor the condition of extremely delicate air freight cargo. Temperature of some items is the vital factor and the new chips react if this varies beyond predefined limits. The chips are currently being used in several German hospitals to monitor arriving blood supplies to ensure they have been maintained at a tolerable temperature and that they are within the usable dates.

It seems that RFID technology is only just starting to make itself felt within society and, once again, the freight and supply chain industry is liable to be at the cutting edge as it develops as was the case with other advances such as popularising facsimile machines, bar coding etc.

For more information about freight and cargo shipping in Houston and the US, please feel free to contact pack n send at 713 266 1450.