Transportation vs. Supply Chain
There are significant differences in tag packaging between RFID tags used in transportation applications and RFID tags used in supply chain applications. RFID tags deployed in supply chain applications are generally, although not always, designed to be disposable, one time use tags. They only need to endure the single journey through the supply chain from the manufacturer, to distribution center(s), to the retail shelf and, finally, to retail checkout. After checkout, the supply chain RFID tag is either disabled or destroyed.
Transportation RFID tags, on the other hand, must be designed for years of continued, reliable use in the harshest operating environments. Consider, for example, RFID tags affixed to all rail cars used by Class 1 railroads operating in North America. These tags are subjected to every imaginable harsh environmental exposure (heat, cold, snow, ice, dirt, rain, oil, and, in certain cases, temperatures over 350° (F) yet they are required to be installed once and operate indefinitely with 99%+ reliability.
Also, consider transportation tags used in road tolling applications. These tags are installed on vehicles’ windshields where temperatures range from sub-zero to 150° (F) and must operate for many years or indefinitely with 99%+ accuracy.
Finally, when comparing prices between supply chain tags and transportation tags, in addition to the above factors, there always will be the issue of economies of scale. Although TransCore has millions of tags installed in transportation applications, these volumes pale in comparison to the volume potential of billions of tags that could be deployed in supply chain applications.
