RFID at the Car Wash

ICS' RFID platform includes the Alien 9800 reader, installed at the entrance of a car-wash tunnel, near the payment kiosk. ICS has also developed a software interface for the Alien 9800. The interface filters duplicate tag reads and sends the tag ID pulled from the car closest to the payment kiosk to the Auto-Sentry software. Thus, by the time the driver stops at the kiosk and rolls down a window to operate the payment terminal, the touch-screen displays a greeting for the account holder. Ruiz says that in early tests of the RFID tags and readers in a car-wash setting, the readers picked up tags from more than 20 feet away, which was too great a range.

"We want to read only the tag attached to the windshield of the car that is next up in line," he explains. "We don't want to read tags off cars that are just driving by, close to the car wash." To reduce the range, ICS has had to experiment with attenuating the interrogator's power levels and settings.

The car-wash proprietor can choose to deploy the RFID system as a customer-loyalty program, as an auto-pay program or both. The driver can then choose to sign up for one or both of the offerings.

As a customer-loyalty tool, the tag would call up special offers, such as a discount on a deluxe wash that includes extra services not provided in a basic wash. The driver can purchase a special offer by selecting it from the touch-screen, or simply to choose a particular type of wash saved on a customer profile linked to the tag number. If the RFID system is used for automatic payment, then when applying for the tag, the driver chooses a credit or debit card account to which the car-washing fees should be charged.

Acording to Ruiz, two of ICS's customers are currently running a small pilot of the RFID system. One customer is testing it for both payments and customer-loyalty offerings, while the other is experimenting only with customer loyalty. "So far," Ruiz says, "they both say that the system is working as they'd hoped."