1st e-tagged international container route
Too cheap and easy.
A Chinese vessel with e-tagged containers sailed on Monday from Shanghai to Savannah, United States, marking the opening of the world’s first international e-tagged container route.
The doorbell-sized e-tags installed on the latch of a twenty-foot-equivalent unit (TEU) will record information about every procedure the container goes through in the whole transport process. It will record delivery and off-loading time, real-time TEU conditions and time and place of legal, or illegal, opening.
The information will be transmitted through a wireless regional Web network to a website for monitoring. If a container is illegally opened enroute, the e-tag will automatically record the “intrusion” and put out a red alarm signal on the Website.
The e-tag developed by Bao costs about 50 yuan (about 7 U.S. dollars) and can last 10 years.
Let me see if I understand: It’s our War On Terror-government that leads the world in whining about security - and China launches this simple device, first?
We’re not talking about anything more complex than current systems tracking motor freight in the U.S.. Likely, the Feds need to "study" the task for a few more years and many millions of dollars. Then they'll award a contract to a Halliburton subsidiary for $600 apiece.
Posted: Tue - March 11, 2008 at 10:00 AM