RFID vehicle tracking management for Vehicle Logistics Company
Vehicle importer Saturno Trasporti is a vehicle logistics company. Saturno manages new finished vehicles received from manufacturers and transports them to dealers or buyers. It operates a fleet of approximately 200 trucks in northern Italy, which transport new vehicles across the European Union and also transport vehicles by rail. Before sending the vehicle to the dealership, it must be repaired at the Saturno logistics center. Sometimes, there may be as many as 3,000 vehicles on-site, many of which undergo cleaning, tire replacement, or other services before transportation. Usually, the company transfers about 600 vehicles per day or 100,000 vehicles per year. Its customers include Volvo, Ford, Volkswagen, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Daimler.
In order to shorten the vehicle search time and improve the efficiency of vehicle transportation, Saturno Trasporti chose the Chainway UHF RFID readers to track and manage real-time positions of the vehicles.
Chainway’s Italian partner TechSigno provided Saturno with a smart parking solution based on the application of the Chainway C71 RFID reader. It comes integrated with barcode scanning, and UHF RFID technology, to achieve vehicle tracking and positioning management, and reduce the impact of human factors, can considerably improve the efficiency while searching for cars.
With this solution, the location of vehicles and parking areas got marked with RFID tags and 2D barcodes. Then, every time a worker receives or moves a new vehicle in the batch, he can use the C71 handheld device to scan the barcode on the vehicle document and read the UHF RFID tag installed on the parking space. If employees notice any discrepancies or need to provide other data about the vehicle and its condition, they can use C71 to enter that information or take a photo. Among the peripherals available in the C71, the camera was also used to report any non-conformities (scratches and dents) or to read license plates (in the case of non-new vehicles). Moreover, all data can be transmitted to the back-end system in real-time via the wireless network. Office personnel or operators can view the location information of each vehicle in real-time, and can also check whether everything is operating smoothly in the factory.