November 05, 2005
RFID in the postal sector
The postal services have the potential to become the second largest users of RFID after the retail sector. The postal and courier service can use RFID to manage the access of people to vehicles and parcels, match the parcels to the destinations, monitor the parcels in transit to prevent tampering, and even monitor the parcels for changes in temperature. Goods delivered by post to Wal-Mart and the U.S Military are being tagged at the pallet and case level so as to ensure product recall and increased availability in the stores.
UPS believes that RFID has a crucial role to play in the postal and courier services and will greatly improve the management of high volume logistics. It has therefore made investments in four RFID companies. RFID tagging of a large volume of goods can now be done in accordance with the ISO global specifications. Vendors have been able to offer tags for less than 15 cents; the price of tags is expected to fall further with the demand that is being created due to the mandates issued by retailers. Constant value engineering may lead to printed transistor circuits by 2007 and perhaps printed RFID labels by 2016. Along with the increased automation and reduced prices, this too augurs well for the postal sector.
Companies such as DAG Systems and Miyake offer passive HF tags that can be read from up to 10 meters. Intermec has succeeded in reading metal cases at up to 1 meter in the presence of impediments. Tags can also be incorporated with GPS, Bluetooth, GSM, etc and be used in various locating devices. Tags with either coin or printed batteries can be used for distances up to two kilometers.
Equipment used in the postal sector, such as sorting machinery, forklifts etc, is becoming more and more compatible with RFID. The postal and courier services can learn about the tagging of high volumes from the CPG and industrial laundry sectors. Airports using RFID are experiencing better security and economical use of space. The postal sector has lessons to absorb from here as well. It is estimated that by 2020 over a trillion postal items will be tagged. Saudi Post, Italian Postal Service, and Deutsche Post have taken the lead to deploy RFID.
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