Last week, Bell Canada announced that it has designed and delivered an integrated RFID asset tracking system for Canada National Railway (CN) at its Brampton, Ontario intermodal terminal. The Bell RFID-enabled asset management solution allows CN to accurately manage incoming and outgoing truck chassis wirelessly, resulting in an increase in supply chain efficiency, productivity and cost savings.
Bell Canada partnered with Symbol Technologies, Inc., which provided the RFID technology -- rugged readers, rugged mobile computers and cargo tags, and Shipcom Wireless, an RFID middleware provider -- to deliver the solution.
"Since the implementation of this RFID solution, we have experienced near-perfect read rates with readers and tags, which has resulted in increased efficiency of our chassis fleet, improved productivity and cost savings. This is good news for CN's fast-growing intermodal business involving rail transportation and local road delivery of domestic and international containers," said Remy Benmiloud, CN Manager.
The Brampton intermodal terminal is the largest of its kind in Canada, with containers moving in and out of the facility daily on truck chassis, including CN's fleet. With the Bell Canada solution, CN is able to record identification numbers accurately and automatically as the tagged chassis pass through the Brampton entry/exit gates. Previously, identification numbers were recorded manually, sometimes resulting in incorrect information. The manual system also made it difficult to pinpoint chassis status and location.
CN is reviewing the Brampton project with an eye toward possibly extending the RFID solution to its other intermodal terminals in Canada.
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