Safeway Tracks Shipments to Alaska Stores, DCs

Horizon now has a system in which RFID readers are deployed at the point of unloading in the Alaska terminal, as well as at the exit and final security gates. From there, trucks heading for Fairbanks pass three RFID readers and antennas installed in boxes containing electronic equipment used by the Alaska Department of Transportation's Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) program—an infrastructure that transmits wireless and wireline communications-based information.

The Identec readers receive signals transmitted by the active Identec 915 MHz tags on the containers every few seconds, capturing the container's unique ID number as the truck drives by at speeds of up to 75 miles per hour and at temperatures as cold as -50 degrees. That unique RFID number is then sent, along with the time of the transmission, via a cellular connection to Horizon's portal, where the data is made available to its clients. Kessler says the company could store data about the shipment on the tags but chose not to "for numerous reasons." One is that with Horizon storing all the data about the container's contents in its back-end system, there's no reason to carry that data on the tag. The system can also automatically send an alert if a shipment, for example, passes the final reader about one hour south of a Safewaystore. This alerts workers to prepare for receiving.

Skinner says the roadside interrogators have thus far shown a read rate of about 95 percent, and all the readers combined have recorded about 79,000 RFID reads since September. Horizon set up cellular communications while Identec provided the site surveys, hardware and reader software.

Safeway only needs visibility for the containers heading north to its Fairbanks-area stores, says Greg Skinner, Horizon Sources' RFID project lead. Still, he points out, the readers are capable of capturing reads on containers moving both north and south.

The value for the customer, Kessler says, lies in allowing the customer to know where all their freight is and how soon they'll receive it. It also allows Horizon Lines to track its empty containers, and could lead to the tracking of containers in its own yard, Kessler says.

Although Horizon hopes to deploy RFID readers and tagged cargo containers throughout the country, Kessler states, Alaska has been a good place to start. "It's a good closed-loop environment. The equipment stays inside that trade lane [Tacoma to Alaska], and Alaska has a limited number of highways." Skinner adds that with the infrastructure in place in Alaska, it would be fairly simple for other customers to join into the tracking system. "The solution is already built—if another customer wants to hook up, it's just a matter of building out the readers [at distribution centers or stores]," he says.