November 2002

A neat way of tracking vehicles or trailers by means of the widely-used Encrypta electronic sealing system has been launched by the maker, Encrypta Electronics. Many such seals are permanently affixed to van or artic trailer doors, especially in large fleets run by or for food manufacturers and supermarket chains.

The system stops short of tracking vehicles out on the road. Instead, it registers their arrival and departure at specific locations. It does this by means of an RFID (radio frequency identification) tag or Crypta Data Tag, which is embedded in the Encrypta housing. This can identify itself to a fixed "listening" device nearby - for instance, near a gatehouse or loading bay - passing on information such as vehicle or trailer ID number, seal number and time that the load was sealed via the licence-exempt 433 MHz RF frequency signal.

Once gathered in this way, the data can be used in any way the operator requires. For instance, it can be relayed by radio or computer network to a control centre or used in a management system. An application where Encrypta sees particular potential is in reducing queues at gatehouses. Sales and marketing director Mark Hayward says it can reduce the delay from half an hour to a few minutes. Such a system has already been piloted intensively by Tesco.