The shipping and logistics industry has been using active RFID and GPS based technologies for many years tracking trucks, trailers, rail cars, and shipping containers around the globe. While there are many applications that require the enhanced capabilities of these technologies, recent advancements in durable on-metal UHF passive RFID tags work sufficiently well to support many of the same applications at a much lower cost. Furthermore, the EPC Gen2 UHF RFID standard is a truly global standard providing total interoperability by an ever increasing collection of tag and reader manufacturers. This provides users with a great deal of flexibility as compared to proprietary active RFID solutions.
Initiatives currently underway in the shipping and logistics sector include tracking shipping containers leaving a rail yard, tracking trailers within a port facility, and tracking trucks, trailers, and drivers arriving and departing from a manufacturing facility.