RFID facilitates improvement and operations optimization on customer service level, as information on train’s location is precisely known and can be forwarded to central IT systems for the update of train control and passenger information systems. If all railway wagons are equipped with RFID tags, this allows wide-area management of cars and locomotives. It allows rail, port, marine, and trucking companies to track and monitor equipment effectively, resulting in increased equipment utilization and reduced re-handles, dwell time, and overhead.
Tracking billions of Euros of equipment and cargo is crucial for good customer service and efficient rail and intermodal operations. Intermodal and trucking companies can use readers and tags to track chassis, containers, and other equipments as soon as it enters the terminal gates. For example, the serial number, time, and date of transaction is sent to the host computer the moment the tagged equipment passes a reader.
The system also helps ensure timeliness and accuracy and improves scheduling. Hands-free and wireless, these systems improve equipment and inventory accuracy, eliminate paperwork, and increase employee productivity by automating the equipment tracking procedures at the terminal.
For facilitated rearrangment of the train in the rail yards, all wagons in a train that are destined for a certain destination shall be arranged near each other. RFID makes it possible and very easy to verify that the composition of a passing train is correct, and whether corrections need to be done at subsequent locations.
If axle-detectors are connected to the readers, the system can even detect where in the train untagged railway wagons are located and/or if a tag is missing or broken.