Swiss Post uses RFID technology in domestic parcel centers and transportation hubs
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A few days ago, Swiss Post launched the company’s third RFID application-using electronic tags to track 45,000 wheeled shipping containers used to transport mail and parcels throughout Switzerland. The implementation of this application is believed to be the largest RFID project in Switzerland so far, and it is planned to be completed in October this year.
Swiss Post is a state-owned company that provides postal services such as parcel delivery, delivering more than 1 million parcels every year. The wheeled carts used by the company (as shown in the figure below) play an extremely important role in the transportation of packages. As one of the company’s important assets, the company needs to count the number and status of carts every two years. Each count requires two employees at each operating point to complete it in about 200 working days.
Due to the inability to know the location and status of the cart container in time, and calculate the number of lost carts, Swiss Post could not list any statistics to help improve the efficiency of use. Therefore, the company decided to use RFID technology to track these wheeled carts, which are very difficult to manage and count. End the manual management of wheeled carts and save money.
Swiss Post completed the project with the help of Swisscom Auto-ID, a communications and IT product service company, and installed 750 readers in 3 parcel delivery centers and 44 transportation hubs. Each parcel center uses highly automated parcel sorting equipment. After the sorting is completed, the package is transported to the center of the designated area for re-sorting or delivered to the transportation hub for delivery to the designated post office.
The Survivor electronic tag manufactured by Confidex is installed on every cart of Swiss Post. The electronic tag is installed on the top edge of the wheeled cart. Now 38,000 carts have completed the installation of electronic tags. Swiss Post chose the Confidex Survivor label because it uses the EPC GEN2 standard, which is known as the market standard, and is cost-effective-the average price per piece is below 3 Swiss francs-and high reliability. Swiss Post also hopes that their customers, including companies that provide logistics services, will use more electronic tags, thereby improving the overall operational efficiency of the delivery system and helping Swiss Post increase customer satisfaction.
When Swiss Post employees push carts through various RFID gates, the unique identification number of the electronic tag will be recognized, and the computer system will also update the cart’s whereabouts record database according to the status of the cart’s outbound or inbound state. This database can be used to make reports on the number of carts at various operating points.
Swiss Post invested about 4 million Swiss francs in this project, including software, hardware and consulting fees. According to Swiss Post’s estimates, this project will save the company 1.5 million Swiss francs every year. There is no need to manually count and count the carts in the future, which will effectively improve the management of carts. By knowing the real-time information of carts, it is ensured that each center has enough carts to handle the expected number of parcels. This information will also help the company better manage the carts, deploy them appropriately between shipping points, and avoid delays.
After the launch of the cart management project, Swiss Post will focus on more RFID projects. They are considering using RFID technology to identify high-value packages and collect package tracking information more easily and accurately. In addition, they plan to use RFID technology to manage recyclable assets in the next five years.
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