UPS Advances New Phase in Smart Package&Smart Facility Initiative with RFID

The global logistics giant plans to equip 60,000 transport vehicles with smart RFID technology this year and add 40,000 more next year to enable automatic tracking of millions of tagged packages. This initiative is a key component of its intelligent package vision, designed to provide real-time location information as packages move between shippers and their destinations.

UPS has already integrated RFID readers into more than 1,000 distribution sites across its network, further expanding its Smart Package Smart Facility (SPSF) solution to achieve daily tracking of millions of "smart packages." UPS sorting facilities feature approximately 155 miles of conveyor belts, handling over 4 million packages daily. To ensure smooth operations, packages must be effectively tracked, routed, and prioritized. With RFID sensing technology integrated into its facilities, UPS has reduced barcode scans by 20 million in its daily operations.

For the RFID industry, UPS’s large-scale package volume makes this one of the most extensive implementations of UHF RAIN RFID technology to date. An early benefit for UPS has been a significant reduction in misloads within manual sorting systems, with misload rates down by 67% since the SPSF RFID deployment. This improvement enhances customer experience while also reducing the company’s carbon footprint. Misloads typically occur when packages are loaded onto the wrong vehicle, requiring extra time and fuel to correct the error.

With RFID technology, UPS can precisely locate each smart package within three feet during the sorting process. This means that if a tagged package is sent to the wrong vehicle, the system automatically issues an alert, allowing for real-time detection and quick correction of loading errors. UPS’s “package cars” are becoming increasingly intelligent, now equipped with RFID readers. This technology captures each package’s unique ID as it’s loaded onto the vehicle, updating the package status as it is picked up. This creates a new data point during the pick-up process and improves overall pick-up accuracy across store network.

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