bonmarch‚, the womenswear retailer, has switched from disposable plastic to reusable seals.
The firm found it could save œ10,000 in operational costs over the five year life of the reusable seals. Tim Webb, bonmarch‚?s Transport Manager, says: ??We were having so many problems with disposable seals. The loading areas were littered with discarded seals. Store managers would not check the seal numbers thoroughly because the seals were usually dirty from road spray, making it hard to read the seal numbers and compare them to the manifest. Also, as drivers deliver to several stores in one journey, they had to remember to take enough spare seals with them to seal each stage of the journey but, invariably, they forgot to take enough.? The reusables are Encrypta Electronics? C2K seals.
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Radio Frequency (RF) tags are starting to be used to identify products at every stage of the supply chain from the manufacturer to the customer. Electronic sealing systems manufacturer Encrypta Electronics has integrated a Radio Frequency (RF) tag into its electronic seals for vehicles and trailers. The Crypta Data Tag enables the vehicle or trailer ID number, seal number and time that the load was sealed to be electronically downloaded via the RF link (using the license exempt frequency of 433 MHz) to a computer, with the details of the past 50 seal numbers plus the time and date of each sealing operation. Mark Hayward, Sales and Marketing Director of Encrypta, says: ?Our system integrated with the other RF tagging technologies that are being deployed at the other stages of the delivery supply chain to give end to end location monitoring. The delivery vehicles account for a major part of the delivery supply chain and our system provides identification and security any tampering with the load is immediately obvious. Additional benefits include reducing manpower and vehicle congestion at security gates as only vehicles that have been flagged up with a security violation need to be manually checked.?
Automatic electronic sealing
The indicative security is provided by one of Encrypta?s seals. This fits onto the vehicle or trailer and automatically generates a four digit random number every time the door is closed. This seal number is recorded in memory along with the date and time of the sealing. The date and time of the subsequent opening of the door is also recorded in memory. Closing the door starts the sequence again with a new random seal number. Thus, at any time, the integrity of the load can be check and, if the number is unchanged, then the load is secure.
Dead drop deliveries
This automatic RF-tagged system means that drivers can now deliver to unmanned delivery locations in the so called ?dead drop delivery method? and the receiving depot can be assured that the goods are still secure and as loaded at the delivery point. Under these circumstances, the seal number and time is transmitted by the seal on the back of the delivery vehicle to an antenna by the gate when it leaves the depot where it was loaded. This information is stored in the company?s computer network.ÿWhen the vehicle arrives at its destination, the seal details are transmitted again and compared with the details stored in the computer system. If the number is unchanged then the computer instructs the barrier to rise and the delivery is made. If the seal details have changed, then the computer signals that a problem has occurred and that human intervention is required. This could take the form of the computer automatically dialling the appropriate on duty personnel so that they can discuss the problem with the driver to find out what has happened to make the load not secure – before the vehicle even enters the delivery compound. This system enables multi-drops to be done with the automatic collection and verification of seal numbers as vehicles deliver to a number of locations along their route. Mark Hayward added, ?This innovation means that a high level of security and an audit trail can be automatically maintained with or without the need for human checks. It also helps remove the possibility of human error in signing delivery documents or collusion between drivers and staff.?ÿ
