New Way to Track Goods Traveling Via Rail Emerges
by Stephanie Neil, MA Editorial Staff
Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 5:13:00 PM EDT
RFTrax, a purveyor of asset management technology designed for the
freight industry, will roll out a new product suite tomorrow said to
enable manufacturers to track goods traveling on railcars.
According to RFTrax, there are 1.6 million railcars operating in the
U.S., most which lack an accurate and reliable way to track the
status and condition of goods in transit. For example, the Sugar
Land, TX, company contends that once the railcar door closes, the
manufacturers’ goods basically disappear since there is no efficient
way to track their whereabouts and monitor the conditions within the
container.
The company’s RFTrax A.M.P. product suite aims to change that. It
combines sensors, cellular networks, and monitoring software to
provide visibility into the whereabouts of goods and the conditions
surrounding the assets while they are in transit.
“A number of industries, from automotive and heavy equipment
manufacturing to chemical and petroleum products, are increasingly
relying on rail freight to transport their goods,” said Hal Haygood,
president of RFTrax in a statement. “We’ve designed a solution that
addresses the rail industry’s need to increase efficiencies in fuel
and railcar utilization, meet target speed and delivery times, and
prevent loss and damage – all of which impact both the bottom line
and customer satisfaction.”
RFTrax A.M.P. includes an asset command unit (ACU) that accommodates
multiple sensors that monitor conditions such as shock, radiation,
temperature, intrusion, and fuel consumption. The cargo itself may
have an RFID tag to trace its location, but the sensors provide a
window into what is happening to cargo once inside the railcar, the
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