Hardee Transportation
Hardee’s line-haul tractors currently are equipped with theQualcomm Satellite system. This allows Hardee to maintain real-timevisibility of its tractors while they are either in motion or atrest. Trailer visibility is only available when it is hooked to atractor. Hardee does not currently have electronic visibility ofmanifest/bill of landing (BOL) data in its trailers. In otherwords, Hardee’s satellite system will tell it that tractor #3235 iscurrently hooked to trailer #13145. What the system does not tellit is who the driver is, what the vehicle weight is, or which BOLsare on the trailer. To this point, Hardee’s system has served themwell.
Hardee services many large manufacturers in the consumer goodsindustry whose main customers are large discount and specialtyretailers. A current movement in this industry is the adoption ofradio frequency identification (FRID) tags for full, real-time,visibility of inventory in the supply chain. Most of these effortshave taken place in manufacturing facilities, distribution centers,and retail stores. Some initiatives have placed RFID tags onpallets, cases, and individual consumer units. On of thedisadvantages of these tags is the cost. Because of current lowdemand of these tags, each one can cost anywhere from $0.5 to $1.This cost could be prohibitive for large-volume customers.
One of Jim O’Brien’s large customers (a manufacturer of consumerproducts) has begun a major initiative with one of its retailers toplace RFID tags on their pallets. A future pilot program will startplacing these tags on each individual shipping case. Jim’s customerwants Hardee to become part of the pallet pilot because of thestrategic role the carrier plays in this retail supply chain.
Jim knows little about RFID technology. What he does know isthat the tags are expensive, require special receivers, and have alimited transmission distance (5 to 10 feet for passive tags).Hardee would need to develop the technology to track these palletsnot only while sitting in Hardee’s yard or on its dock but alsowhile they are in transit. Jim is really not sure what this willmean for Hardee and how it will change its technologyrequirements.
What would you tell Jim about RFID? How will thistechnology impact his carrier’s operations? How will he implementit while not incurring a huge expense? What will happen when thetags are placed on individual case?
