There is a wide variety of applications for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) making today’s world smarter and more secure. Driver identification via RFID is one of its kind innovations that have revolutionized the logistics value chain to manage the fleet of vehicles and to ensure that only staff members with proper skills and authorization can enter and operate a certain vehicle.
The Architecture of Driver Identification via RFID
The technical solution of driver identification system via RFID has a multi-faceted architecture; principally, an RFID system is a reader that captures RFID tags or smart labels embedded in a smart card and transmits via radio waves to a server location. Every vehicle is installed with the RFID reader and concerned drivers are issued the RFID cards, which contain the relevant details. It is further connected to a vehicle tracking device, tasked with relaying records to a central system or server. Once a sanctioned RFID tag is swapped against the reader in a particular vehicle, it gets unlocked and respective drivers can drive/operate it. This mechanism is coupled with a very user-friendly GUI where vehicles can be tracked and all the data records and reporting can be visualized, along with a change of authorization rules and policies if required. More so, the solution is also complemented via application to peer (A2P) communication i.e., whenever a card is swapped against a reader, an instant message is sent to the owner/manager and it can also help monitor the working hours of the drivers.
Why use RFID Driver Identification?
Fleet operators optimize processes in general, reduce fuel consumption and ensure that drivers comply with legal obligations. Companies managing commercial vehicles can ensure that drivers with proper certification and qualifications can operate them. Emergency services like the fire department, police, and ambulance can manage authorization and locate every vehicle in real-time. RFID-enabled driver identification can certainly boost the usefulness of telematics, add transparency by monitoring compliance with rules and regulations, fuel savings, and easy integration into the IT infrastructures with other ERP systems.
Use-Cases for RFID Driver Identification
Owing to the associated benefits, the penetration of RFID solutions, especially in the logistics and supply chain section is increasing day by day. NXP Semiconductors N.V. is a NASDAQ-listed global enterprise that offers innovative solutions according to the ever-growing digital requirements, mainly in the business-to-business (B2B) domain. With over 60+ years of experience, NXP is offering a great variety of RFID cards, with a special focus on automatic vehicle identification and its subsequent tracking. NXP’s associated solution certainly offers security, transparency, efficiency, convenience, and sustainability to client enterprises. More so, moving one step ahead, it has collaborated with Momenta (the first mover in the domain of autonomous driving) to design and develop a smart Driver Monitoring System (DMS) which would measure driver’s attention and offer pre-collision warnings.
Another dimension that has recently been explored is the use of RFID for school bus attendance systems; an RFID reader can be installed in the school bus and connectivity can be established to the main server via internet connection. It is equipped with a GPS device as well. Every student who is meant to travel on a particular bus is issued an RFID card with unique identification. Bus pickup and drop-off can be recorded and associated A2P communication is established with the peers. Data is securely stored at the backend servers and can be visualized accordingly to extract meaningful insights.
Conclusion
With the rapid advancements in information communication and technology (ICT), verification frameworks via RFID form the building blocks of IoT and smart modules, especially in the domains of logistics and supply chain. Automated driver identification is of utmost importance as far as security, efficiency, and streamlining of business operations is concerned, as it minimizes human errors and provides enhanced visibility for making optimal decisions.
