The Options

There is a lot of discussion of RFID in supply chain. Less discussed is GPS, which has made a huge spash in consumer directions and routing. GlobalTag, produced through a partnership of Numerex and Savi, actually promises to combine both GPS and RFID.

Still, not nearly enough is out there to educate people on when one tracking system should be used over another and how they compare. However, this article on How Stuff Works really does this.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/location-tracking2.htm

This article compares and contrasts four different methods of tracking:

• GIS
• GPS
• RFID
• WLAN
• Mobile Phones

This is a good place to start to understand tracking in general.

References

http://www.savi.com/

http://www.numerex.com/dna-application.html

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/anti-shoplifting-device3.htm

http://www.navtrakgps.com/ppc/gps-tracking.cfm?ls=27&mt_gs=Content&mt_ys={OVMTC:std:adv:cnt}&ctt_id=18938654&ctt_adnw=Google&ctt_kw=gps%20vehicle%20tracking&ctt_ch=ps&ctt_entity=kw&gclid=CLqF6OTd_poCFRMUagod4l9bdQ

The Problem

The long haul trucking industry has has a habitual problem with violating its regulations regarding driver time.

Sharing GPS Monitoring Information

Currently, a number of long haul trucking companies set daily milage goals which can not be met, and which force truckers to cheat on their logbooks and driver further than they are legally allowed. GPS can help put a stop to this practice by providing transparency as to the truck’s drive hours, as well as drive speed throughout the year.

Privacy

Any privacy concerns brought up by the industry would simply not be believable. Each long haul truck is now tracked by its company, which is not a democratic institution and which is not in charge of regulation and which has no public interest function. The trucks are riding on US government infrastructure, with the rest of the public, that has an interest in traffic safety. The current logbook approach to truck monitoring is a pre-GPS arrangement between the government and industry that needs to be upgraded. Therefore, the public deserves to know this information. When we say public, we don’t just mean the regulating body. The information when provided to the government, should be made available to the public through a website.

New Average Speed Determination

IQ Routes is a trademarked capability of TomTom, the GPS company, that uses updated average speed values to calculate the lowest time route for its GPS devices. This has the potential to improve routes selected for trucks that need to find the highest speed route to their destinations. The IQ Routes functionality works in conjunction with a traffic service that that provides real time traffic information and incorporates it into route planning.

The TomTom 740 has IQ Route capability.

GPS in Supply Chain Currently

We hear a lot about RF for tracking, but not nearly as much about GPS. GPS seems to be specialized in vehicle and container tracking. While that is helpful, it is not as helpful as going to the pallet level or below for tracking. Secondly, in terms of tracking, using RF is fine for inside the warehouse, however, one items leave the warehouse it is not as helpful.

Current Design

The current design of package tracking is through the use of the bar code and the bar code reader. For the development of comprehensive This requires that the company that scans the package, provide a feed to a different company. As those of you know who read our blog on fourth party logistics providers, we propose that intermediaries that do nothing but build platforms that perform supply chain monitoring is the future. (see the article on this topic here)

http://fourthpartylogistics.wordpress.com/2009/05/23/fourth-party-logistics-providers/

The nice thing about GPS, is that multiple people can track it, without having to necessarily integrate to one another. This is because the GPS transmitter can be picked up by multiple parties that don’t necessarily even have any integration to one another. In this way, GPS is a one to many technology that could have significant scale economies if used properly.

Consumer GPS Transmitters

The cost of transmitters is decreasing. However, they are not as common as one would think. The most successful and numerous consumer GPS transmitter currently is for keeping track of dogs and runs roughly $150 Garmin makes the model below.

Commericial GPS Transmitters

The commercial GPS transmitter by WorldTracker is roughly $250 (figure $170, or less if purchased in bulk, which they would be), and transmits the unit’s location every 15 seconds. This is far too more frequent than required for logistics, and could be made more energy efficient by changing the transmission frequency to once per hour. This unit is smaller than a deck of cards and could easily be affixed to a pallet. The lifespan of this unit or competing units is unknown to us.

Conclusion

Supply chain firms are not doing enough to take advantage of what GPS has to offer and is overly focused on bar coding and RF for package tracking. In the future 4PL environment, a device that transmits a signal, that multiple companies can read will be highly advantageous.