Excellent recent article in the Wall St. Journal on how RFID, Global Positioning Systems, and related software technology are enabling shippers a new level of visibility and control over their cargo moves.

The article begins with a simple story: a food additive company usually knows little about the actual movement of its cargo containers during the three-week trip from Europe to the U.S. But now, piloting a new solution from NaviTag Technology, the company sees its container is sitting for too long in the port of Montreal - and makes calls to expedite its movement to its New Jersey destination.

The new technologies are enabling containers to proactively broadcast their location, contents and condition - which will dramatically change international logistics control and impact supply chain and inventory management for overseas buyers and shippers.

Some of the many possibilities:

	Security: a container was taken to some place not expected - is this OK? Obviously, the threat of terrorism has increased interest in this area significantly.
	Flow: Proactive tracking of containers against expected transit and dwell times at each leg of the journey.
	Safety and inventory management: What were the internal temperatures of containers carrying food products or pharmaceuticals? Such knowledge can drive decisions about usability or shelf life.

But there are challenges. Some are concerned the security capabilities could generate a flood of "false alarms," and actually choke the flow of goods as security forces check out the raised flag. Second, the cost: depending on the sophistication of the sensors/tags, adding these capabilities can cost from $100 to $800 to the price of a container. With 17 million containers worldwide, that's a lot of bucks.

I actually think the ROI from these cargo-tracking applications seems clearer and more dependent on use of RFID than many regular (domestic) supply chain scenarios. It also seems clear that if this technology can reduce our security threats, and it works, we will come around sooner rather than later despite the cost, especially if any security incident ever arises from an inbound cargo container.

We can't provide a link to the article, but send us an email if you would like a copy and we'll see what we can do.

Are you using or piloting this type of technology for cargo tracking? What do you see as the benefits - or the obstacles? Are "false alarms" going to be a big problem? Let us know your thoughts.