Jun 27, 2007This article was originally published by RFID Update.
June 27, 2007—The management of trailer yards appears to be emerging as an attractive niche for RFID and RTLS. Two startups this week, one with $4.5 million in funding, announced RFID-based yard management solutions. Both are hoping that yard managers will adopt RFID-enabled visibility as a solution to their problems. Like other points along the supply chain, those problems include loss, misdirection, and the sheer organizational inefficiency that results from the daily comings and goings of voluminous amounts of goods.
Colorado-based Fluensee yesterday announced a new version of its Yard Management solution, which incorporates RFID, GPS, and a web-based visualization application to offer managers a bird's-eye view of the yard to more effectively plan and streamline operations. The solution also automates many of the manual data capture processes, which might otherwise be done with pen-and-clipboard. Yard check-in and check-out is made both more secure and efficient.
Fluensee received Series A funding last year and has since broadened its offering portfolio with solutions targeted at IT asset management, transportation and logistics (which includes Yard Management), automotive, and government.
PINC Solutions is another company in RFID-enabled yard management that has made headlines lately. In April the company announced $4.5 million in a Series C round of funding (see RFID Yard Management Provider Lands $4.5m). Yesterday it announced Carrier View, an addition to its existing Yard Hound Product Suite. The solution empowers third-party logistics providers with visibility of their trailers while those trailers are in remote yards. So instead of just a yard manager having yard visibility, remote 3PL managers can also see their trucks. There is an authorization protocol to ensure that 3PL managers can only see those assets that belong to them.
