Intermodal tracking system to expand nationwide
Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 7/23/2007 11:36:00 AM
Horizon Services Group (HSG), which provides information services to Dallas-based ocean carrier provider Horizon Lines, wants to expand the RFID intermodal tracking system it created in Alaska, thereby lending visibility to containers once they leave shipment terminals.
“Getting visibility to the last mile is an industrywide problem,” says Rick Kessler, CIO and VP of business service solutions for HSG. “Intermodal transportation today is a black hole where we lose sight of containers once they leave the terminal, limiting greater gains in efficiency.”
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| Horizon Services Group CIO Rick Kessler is working to enlist more states across America in the use of its RFID intermodal tracking system. |
HSG is in discussion with officials from numerous state and federal departments of transportation, hoping to enlist them in an effort to improve over-the-road visibility of containers in transit, and eliminate a barrier to greater economies of scope for RFID technology.
HSG, which piloted its RFID intermodal tracking system in Alaska and parts of Washington, now looks to expand its own network to Hawaii, Guam, and Puerto Rico. But it wants to gain the cooperation of all the states in the lower 48, taking advantage initially of the reader infrastructure already in place at highway weigh stations in 40 states.
“Extending visibility to the highway system would enable greater efficiencies within the terminals,” says Kessler.
