Since Arnold Clark Automobiles upgraded to a WiFi (News - Alert)-and-RFID-based system via the Cisco Unified Wireless Network this summer, cars have become so much easier to track that the European independent auto dealer has already saved 125 hours a month, which means two service workers can focus on other areas.
Before implementing the Cisco (News - Alert) Unified Wireless Network, “the dealership -- which has 145 locations and 8,000 employees across the United Kingdom – would sometimes find it challenging to track down the right car for the right customer quickly,” saidChris Kozup ( News - Alert), senior manager of mobility solutions for networking giant Cisco.
The flagship dealership, located in Stafford, maintains an inventory of 1,000 cars for sale at any given time on a 12-acre lot and 74,000 square-foot showroom.
But when a customer arrives to the sales lot, associates typically have less than 10 minutes to engage the customer and find the right car or they could lose the sales opportunity.
With the new Cisco-based system in place, a sales associate can pinpoint the exact location of a desired car within minutes. First, the sales person goes to a terminal with Arnold Clark’s inventory management software that is connected to the AeroScout Vehicle Tracking Solution application. They select the parameters – for example, “customer wants a 2007 blue four-door” -- and plug in that information. The tracking system scans the inventory to see the cars that match the criteria, and then, “pings into” the Cisco “Mobility Services Engine” to determine where the car is located. Because cars wear active Radio Frequency Identification (or RFID) tags that send out signals to the tracking system, their location on a floor plan or lot is exact, Kozup said.
“What the Cisco Mobility Services Engine does is allows us to take that location information and put it into the AeroScout Vehicle tracking solution,” Kozup said. “And the combination of that information with the tracking solution helps the car sales associate know where a car is located on a floor or lot plan.”
Reuters: Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) has selected TransCore to convert the existing Interstate 15 Express Lanes decal system to an electronic, radio frequency identification (RFID)-based payment system. This type of system is the first in Utah.
The contract encompasses system design, installation, integration, Encompass 6® multiprotocol RFID readers and the new RFID-based eZGo Anywhere HOT/HOV transponders. The contract is valued at approximately $16 million, which includes a 9-year maintenance option. Installation is scheduled for completion by fall of 2010.
The new electronic payment system will enable UDOT to dynamically adjust the pricing based on traffic conditions. Motorists pay only for their actual usage of the lane instead of the fixed fee for a monthly decal. This system will help UDOT to further reduce congestion and travel times in all lanes.
The dynamic pricing system is built around a traffic-condition algorithm.
Software collects traffic flow data from the Express and general-purpose lanes to calculate a price that optimally matches demand. The algorithm will use data provided by UDOT`s TransSuite traffic management system, supplied by TransCore under a previous contract.
Business Wire: ROSWELL, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MOC1 Solutions and MyDealerLot announce the release of an integrated solution for the service drive which combines MyDealerLot’s innovative automated RFID customer recognition technology (Service Drive Concierge – ‘SDC’) with MOC1 Solutions Wireless Service AdvisorTM.
The integrated solution allows customer vehicles to be instantly associated to MyDealerLot’s passive RFID tag allowing automated customer recognition and messaging to staff and customers. MOC1’s Wireless Service Advisor enables a mobile check-in of the customer and automated retrieval of the repair order for faster customer processing.
“SDC has always been about the very simple concept of knowing the exact moment a service customer pulls into the service drive. This automated customer arrival capture can enable numerous processes such as the automated retrieval of the repair order using MOC1 Solution’s innovative tablet solution for mobile check-in,” said MyDealerLot Founder and President George Cresto.
Dave Waco, President of MOC1 Solutions agrees; “The integration of MyDealerLot’s RFID technology with our Wireless Service AdvisorTM Solution truly takes customer service to an entirely new level. Service customers enjoy the personal touch and appreciate the prompt and accurate process that the technologies deploy.”
The Journal of Commerce: DENVER — Aug 31, 2009 — Fluensee , a leading provider of RFID-enabled asset management and supply chain solutions, announced today that Penske Logistics has selected Fluensee's Yard solution to provide real-time visibility and management of its trailers and yard assets.
Initially, Penske will implement the Fluensee Yard™ solution with a combination of passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) technologies at its Garland, Texas facility. The combination of RFID and GPS will provide Penske with real-time updates about the location, status and condition of company trucks and trailers.
Yard management solutions help reduce inbound and outbound trailer bottlenecks and allow companies to build effective yard plans, enhance their operating procedures and streamline their operations. Not all of them, however, can process the wide array of advanced automatic identification technologies available today. Fluensee Yard combines RFID and GPS technologies with advanced business rules and processes to automate workflow and events across yard operations. Fluensee Yard uses these automatic identification technologies to capture trailer information and automate the process of identifying and locating equipment within the yard and providing an on-demand, real-time inventory of all yard assets.
RFID News: BMW has recently adopted Ubisense’s Tool Assistance System (TAS) for use in its assembly plant in Regensburg, Denmark.
The TAS is designed to identify and track in real time a vehicle as it is being assembled without the need to perform manual bar code scans. The system uses RFID to automatically identify the vehicle being assembled as well as detect the vehicle’s proximity to specific production equipment.
Because different models are built in succession at BMW assembly plants, workers need to constantly load and reload the correct programs for their automatic tools via bar code scans or by entering information into a terminal, both of which are error prone procedures. When a worker loads the wrong information for a particular car a costly manufacturing defect is created. However, with TAS, if a worker approaches a tagged vehicle with an automatic tool, the appropriate program will be automatically loaded into the tool, eliminating the risk of human error.
The Regensburg assembly plant uses nearly 120 tool systems to produce approximately 1,000 cars per day. [end]
PR.COM: Guangzhou, China, August 07, 2009 --(PR.com)-- DAILY RFID releases RFID vehicle access control system with high identification accuracy, designed to track and manage vehicles in parking areas or gated communities to allow for accurate vehicle tracking as well as easy in-and-out access for drivers.
The new RFID vehicle access control system consists of passive UHF RFID windshield sticker tags attached to the windshields of vehicles, and readers DL910 installed on fixed overhead or roadside structures identifying cars in motion. With this RFID vehicle access control solution, car information can be automated gathered to enable efficient vehicle management, while maintaining high identification rate.
eMediaWire - A PRWEB.COM Newswire: JMobile, the new software from Mobil-i adds truly mobile tracking capabilities and a graphical mapping feature enabling users to pinpoint the location of their fleet on a mobile phone or other mobile device.
Dublin, Ireland (PRWEB) June 8, 2009 -- Irelands longest established and leading Fleet Management and GPS vehicle tracking company, Mobil-i, today announced a mobile version of their highly successful fleet management software. Already Mobil-i clients have the flexibility of desktop and web based versions of the system. With the addition of JMobile they now truly offer the widest range of options for Fleet Managers in Ireland.
Greg Davidson, Mobil-i Managing Director said "With this release, Mobil-i is giving its clients the maximum flexibility. Now clients can access their fleet information from their mobile phones allowing them to make important business decisions on the move. Our service already allows fleet managers to make large savings and maximize employee productivity and now this can be done without the need to log on to a PC".
The new Mobil-i JMobile software is a Java based application which means it can run on all of the popular mobile devices regardless of phone network or brand of device. Users can bring up their vehicles current location & status which can quickly be displayed & plotted onto either satellite view or map view.
JMobile, like all of the software from Mobil-i, is developed in house by Mobil-i's team of developers. This means that they are best placed to be able to develop custom code for clients who have a particular need to interface their fleet information into other applications.
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Apple Insider: A new patent application from Apple suggests the company could be working on proprietary global positioning system software that would calculate road trip times and recommend routes, based on real-time data collected from numerous users, and uploaded to a centralized server.
In the recently revealed U.S. patent filing, Apple describes a system for obtaining drivers' personal travel data and using it to estimate driving times. Such a system could take into account speed, time of day, location, driving patterns, season, route type and features, traffic information, road conditions and location data.
Stuff.co.nz: A major plank of Greater Wellington Regional Council's strategy to get more people on buses and trains is closer to reality with the choice of suppliers for a real-time information system (RTIS).
The companies chosen to provide the satellite position-locating system that will track the location of up to 100 trains and 500 buses are ACIS from the UK and NZ-based Kordia.
KOAM TV: When Alexandre Bayen and other University of California, Berkeley researchers tested a fleet of 100 cars carrying GPS-enabled cell phones in February, he was trying to see how well they could monitor the flow of traffic without betraying the identity of the individual drivers.
He couldn't have anticipated the five-car pile-up on the San Francisco Bay Area freeway that was about to happen. But the satellite-linked, two-way connected phones told the story.
