Auto Importer Uses RFID to Reduce Labor Costs and Expedite Vehicle Movement

Published: February 28, 2013

Colmobil, Israel’s largest automobile importer, is employing an RFID system to decrease labor costs and expedite the processing of those vehicles as they are brought into the country at two ports. The company imports 35,000 to 45,000 cars every year, and sells them at 45 dealerships throughout the nation. The cars are brought into the Port of Eilat and the Port of Ashdod, where they are stored until they can be removed from the port’s storage parking lot and shipped to Colmobil’s pre-delivery inspection (PDI) facility. At the storage parking lot, each automobile is identified by its vehicle identification number (VIN), printed in text and bar-code form on a sheet of paper glued to the car’s rear-left passenger window. The firm permanently fits each new vehicle with a 3/4-inch by 4-inch EPC Gen 2 passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tag as it is being unloaded from the ship. In this session, learn how the staff uses a handheld computer coupled with an RFID interrogator and a bar-code scanner to locate and confirm they have the correct car before picking it up. Hear how the technology is being utilized to accurately determine final detailing, safety inspections and registration with the motor vehicle license bureau, and to provide that information to customers.
Speaker: Gil Katz, CIO, Colmobil Corp