Are all the brains in Canada?

Liaison CAN/US Courier Deploys RFID Infrastructure across Fleet
By Editorial Staff Freight forwarder taps Ship2Save for radio frequency identification-enabled solution to boost productivity, provide value-add for customers Montreal — July 29, 2005 — International freight forwarder Liaison Can/Us Courier has deployed a radio frequency identification (RFID)-enabled infrastructure across its fleet of trucks in an initiative that will allow the company to provide RFID-powered transportation services throughout North America... read full article here:
http://www.sdcexec.com/article_arch.asp?article_id=7456

Originally, US companies like UPS and FedEX had the lead in gangbuster ideas such as this. Every package is bar coded and drivers and warehouse personnel (when they do their job properly) track shipments by scanning them.

However, given the technology advances these outfits have been sitting on their laurels for at least a couple years too many.

I sell GPS tracking technology for a living, over the years I have consulted extensively in that area, bought millions of dollars of equipment for clients and evaluated thousands of pieces of hardware and systems.

US commercial carriers are by and large just in the hand-wringing, 'we can't afford it' mode. It's very hard to show, even with hard performance data, that investments in modern technology can pay off quickly.

Using RFID rather than the more labor intensive hand bar code scanning can save dollars and increase throughput .. both leading directly to improved bottom lines. Wal*Mart created a huge burble in the logistics airflow more than a year ago when they demanded RFID coding from suppliers. The carriers, who in many cases earn part of their profit by hauling for Wal*Mart have steadfastly ignored this cold-plated opportunity.

All the lines of equipment I sell and service come from Canada. Intelligent, cost effective ideas like the headline above come from Canada. US executives, by and large, sort of laugh up their sleeves at Canada. Perhaps they ought to open their eyes and take a realistic look at the rest of North America. They may be laughing out of the wrong side of their mouths.