Sept/Oct 2005

SaviTrak, a global network for tracking shipping containers and their contents, went live in September with the first commercial shipment of tracked goods. These were made from Guangdong, China, via the Port of Yantian to Long Beach in southern California by a Japanese consumer goods company. The container company was Mitsui .

RFID specialist Savi Technology uses RFID (radio frequency identification) tags on containers to track their movement through ports participating in Savi Networks, which it runs with port operator Hutchison.

An unusual aspect of the initial shipments was the use of 'nested tagging'. The primary RFID tags used by Savi are active tags (capable of generating their own signal), but these monitor only the container itself. However, by using the more common passive EPC-standard passive RFID tags to identify each case in the load, users can cross-reference cases with containers, automatically creating a container manifest for each shipment.

The programme is deploying several types of active RFID tag, including the latest Savi Tag ST-676 ISO Container Security Tag, which clamps on to the container's door.