Application analysis of passive RFID technology in logistics tracking management

The efficiency and safety of logistics transportation is the most important link in logistics management. For shippers and carriers, how to effectively track and manage containers is one of their most concerned issues. According to a survey conducted by AMR research institutes, most logistics companies are unable to grasp 10%-15% of the container transportation in real time, and do not know where these goods are. This kind of operation method that lacks visibility of information is inevitably safe transportation Brings risks.

The government departments of various countries have put the security of international trade in the first place, so the real-time management of inventory can effectively prevent logistics companies from transport errors or theft of goods.

In the past five years, the logistics industry and some freight companies have adopted the deployment of RFID tags to strengthen daily work supervision and precise management of the supply chain. In addition to tracking goods, it is also possible to track trucks carrying goods. This relatively automated management has brought a more convenient and faster way for the customs declaration process of logistics companies in international trade, but traditional RFID technology is no longer suitable for the current The demand is replaced by a new type of passive RFID technology that is compatible with industry standards, low cost and high efficiency. It will bring more tracking methods to the logistics tracking management.

On the current application of RFID in the logistics industry

At present, many foreign product manufacturers and logistics companies have deployed RFID tags to track and manage goods and containers. Among them, NATO, GM, Sinker Logistics, and major international organizations such as the US Department of Defense have taken the lead. Using this technology.

During the war against Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008, the US Department of Defense deployed a batch of active RFID tags with a frequency band of 433Mhz to track the supply of each batch of major materials in real time. The logistics department was unable to grasp the transportation of goods and was always stuck. In the fear of materials being attacked and intercepted, since RFID, the military can obtain the position information of cargo ships and containers in real time, which greatly avoids the loss of materials and interception.

Maersk Shipping (Maersk) often undertakes the military's material transportation tasks. It uses RFID technology to identify the shipping ship's cargo list and material destinations within 5 minutes. More importantly, it uses RFID to grasp the geographic location of the cargo ship in real time. Location is very important to judge the efficiency of cargo transportation.

The RFID solution saves the military a lot of expenses in logistics supply chain management, in particular, it can guarantee the return of core containers within 7 days, thus avoiding the high fines caused by delayed returns.

With RFID, the fines resulting from the backlog of containers and delayed returns are significantly reduced. According to statistics, benefiting from the reliable information brought by RFID technology, the US Department of Defense's 107,000 air transportation missions have successfully delivered 5.5 billion gallons of fuel and 10.7 million tons of cargo.

Future RFID application challenges in logistics

When RFID technology was introduced into the logistics field for cargo tracking, the development of passive RFID technology was still at the initial stage, and it was basically impossible to achieve long-distance reading and writing and the use of relatively harsh environments. In addition, passive tags are often difficult to perform in a multi-metal environment, and containers are made of metal, which is a considerable challenge to passive RFID technology, so in container tracking, the most used is active RFID label.

Emirates Airlines has also deployed active RFID tags to track container equipment for air transportation. The leader in RFID application belongs to the US defense department, and other military fields and private companies have also used active RFID technology. However, active RFID has never been comparable to passive RFID in terms of reading distance and tag sensitivity.

There are some obstacles in the application of active RFID technology. First, active RFID tags are difficult to be compatible with industry standards, and their design can only be special; secondly, the power supply used to support active RFID cannot last for a long time (generally no more than one Year), battery energy will decrease as the tag is continuously read and written; the price of active RFID tags ranges from US$10 to US$50, which is expensive.

Logistics companies have been worried that RFID technology cannot adapt to the complex and changing transportation environment, and is not compatible with industry standards. It has to cause the company to stop the existing management system and increase the additional cost to support the operation of the active RFID system, and the shipping company will also spend Higher costs to match the management of logistics companies, these will become the reason for the application of active RFID blocked.

Passive RFID will redefine cargo tracking management mode

Advanced passive RFID technology can meet industrial-grade requirements and can be used on metal surfaces (ROM), and now the latest UHF passive RFID tags are only $0.25 each or even cheaper, compared with traditional active RFID tags , This kind of label is more cost-effective and has a wider application range. Moreover, the passive tag installed on the container has reached a reading and writing distance of 6 meters, which can fully meet the needs of users.