[photopress:logistics_etag.jpg,full,alignright]At the Port of Savannah, shipping containers from China arrive attached with small plastic boxes that track the cargo inside — and send a radio-signaled alarm to remote computers if someone tries to break in.
This is not RFID tagging although based on the same technology. This is something else in that it is a security device. Port officials say these electronic tags, a little larger than a pack of cigarettes, could prove a tremendous boon to the shipping industry.
The Savannah port has teamed up with the world’s second-largest seaport in Shanghai to test the tagging technology on all cargo shipped between them.
Curtis Foltz, chief operating officer of the Georgia Ports Authority said, ‘It’s a huge benefit. From the beginning of shipping to the end, if a container is compromised at any point there will be an immediate alert.’
Savannah and Shanghai started shipping tagged cargo in March and have since used them on 2,375 containers spread over 18 trips. They hope to reach 10,000 tagged containers shipped over the next six to 12 months getting the system beeded in and the bugs out.
The tags are programmed with the type of cargo being shipped, its weight, the name of the ship transporting it and the destination.
That information gets picked up via radio by monitors at the port gates when the cargo arrives by truck or train, and again at the crane loading the container onto a ship a process that’s repeated, in reverse, when the shipment reaches its destination. The monitors send the information to computers that can track the cargo’s whereabouts in real time.
The tags will also sense if a container is opened or if its seal is broken in transit, and will broadcast an alert marking the time of the intrusion. Its location is plotted by Global Positioning System.
Wally Barelka, the Georgia ports’ general manager for strategic systems development, said, ‘It’s like a cell phone. The first cell phones were clunky and didn’t have many functions. Now your cell phone checks your e-mail and is your address book.’
Source: Forbes