Jan/Feb 2004

No fewer than 23,000 buses are to be tracked by RFID (radio frequency identification) in the Colombian capital, Bogota. They are owned by a large number of small independent companies.

The unusual project has been developed by the local authority there in order to bring a measure of organisation to the city's previously unregulated bus operations. Vehicles will in future will be limited to specific parts of the area, and all are to be fitted permanently with RFID tags, which will be used to identify them.

The system is not intended to track all vehicles remotely. RFID is a relatively short-range technology, and will be used here for enforcement out in the field. Transit officers are being equipped with ruggedised handheld terminals inorporating RFID readers, and will check vehicles randomly to see whether they are authorised to be running on routes where they are found.

The project has been managed by a Colombian company, WM Wireless & Mobile, using a system called Intelligent Long Range (ILR) RFID from an American supplier, Identec Solutions. Identec says its I-Q active RFID tag has a range of up to 100 metres.

 

Although the scheme won't be fully implemented until the middle of the year, already it is said to have dispersed buses away from the main routes where they were previously congregating - leading to major reductions in traffic congestion, and potential savings of millions of dollars a day.