Jul 19, 2011Rush Tracking Systems, a Kansas-based RFID systems integrator and solutions provider, has merged with Sky-Trax Inc. to form a new firm that will offer a combined solution to help companies better monitor and analyze the locations and status of forklifts and the loads they carry. The new company will market its smart-truck solution to product manufacturers and warehouses, as a means for managing such vehicles, as well as the goods and materials they move.
Rush Tracking Systems traditionally provides RFID systems and integration services for lift-truck management at warehouses and factories, while Sky-Trax, through its distributors, sells an optical-based location-tracking and data-collection solution for industrial vehicles. The two merging firms will continue to operate from their existing offices in Kansas and Delaware, though they have yet to determine what the new company will be called. The smart-truck solution that the new firm has developed is commercially available now, says Toby Rush, the president of Rush Tracking Systems.
The merger is the latest in a series of similar deals recently forged between RFID-related technology providers. In 2010, for example, ODIN acquired Reva Systems (see ODIN Acquires Reva Systems and ODIN Makes a Move with Reva Acquisition). And in April of this year, Awarepoint announced that it had purchased Patient Care Technology Systems (see RFID News Roundup: Awarepoint Acquires PCTS and Awarepoint's New CEO Diversifies Health-Care Offering).
In 2009, Rush Tracking Systems was purchased by Pharos Capital Group (see Rush Tracking Systems Acquired by Private Equity Firm). Rush says he does not expect this latest merger to be his company's last acquisition.
For the past two years, Rush Tracking Systems had acted as a Sky-Trax value-added reseller (VAR), providing its own RFID technology in conjunction with Sky-Trax's system, along with integration services. With the merger, the combined company can now sell and integrate the entire package with a user's existing management system. The new firm, Rush says, will also have a greater focus on providing data management. The system, he notes, collects a great deal of data, and the merger allows the new company to offer more comprehensive solutions that can provide further analytics, such as tracking each lift truck's efficiency, determining the most effective layout, and ascertaining why some facilities have more efficient load patterns, as well as what affects efficiency levels during certain shifts, and when a driver requires retraining to become more efficient.
The new company will offer a selection of packages for customers, including a system for tracking forklift drivers themselves, a solution for tracking lift trucks' locations, one for conducting an inventory of the vehicles' loads, and another for automated forklifts that operate without a driver. According to Rush, the solutions provided by his company and Sky-Trax together have been providing customers with a return on investment within 12 to 18 months.
The time was right for such a merger, Rush says, given the strong user demand for the two companies' combined truck-tracking systems. "We're seeing quite a bit of growth," he states. Customers that install the system, he reports, experience a 15 percent to 20 percent productivity increase. Kinnard adds, "We're growing very rapidly, so we need to grow our own resources to meet the demand."
