May/June 2005

Lorry trailers can represent the ultimate "container" in a continuous RFIDriven supply-chain tagging loop - and this without even using RFID in their own right.

This is the contention of Unisto, the company behind the Crypta range of electronic seals. According to sales and marketing director Mark Hayward, the company's GateTrak system represents "the final missing link needed to create integrated RFID for the entire supply chain."

GateTrak is the new name for a package of capabilities for monitoring the movement of vehicles and trailers by checking their Unisto reusable electronic seals in and out of depots. Assuming the contents of the container are covered by an all-embracing manifest, the data collected on the movement of the unit can be integrated with batch or item tracking data gathered from RFID tags within the load.

Interestingly, Unisto recently re-engineered the Crypta seals themselves, using a glass-filled nylon outer casing which was said to be more RFID-friendly (m.logistics, issue 16). However, the kind of tracking outlined by Hayward in his latest comments does not in fact require RFID monitoring of the seals, but simply conventional RF communication at gatehouses.