Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS) is conducting trials of technology developed to track the location and integrity of freight shipments between Kansas City and Mexico or Kansas City and the West Coast.
KC SmartPort has just wrapped up its first round of testing on trucks and trailers along the NAFTA corridor, and now plans to focus on rail shipments.
Together with KCS and Bartlett Grain, the non-profit organisation planned to track 25 cars to Monterrey, Mexico.
“We want to show that the same devices that work on trucks and trailers can also work on rail and other modes,” said Chris Gutierrez, president of KC SmartPort. “Kansas City is the only city in the nation that is incorporating different technologies. This is significant for the many different companies that use the corridor.”
While many retailers and transportation carriers track their products from origination to destination, they don’t all use the same technology. A retailer may use RFID while a carrier may use GPS technology.
Gutierrez says KC’s effort is not tied to a specific company or product. “It’s the only one in the country like it,” he says. “Any company using the NAFTA or KC to West Coast ports corridors can access the information. This means they can use the technology that best suits their needs.”
With the information received from these tests, Kansas City will create a data fusion centre into which all the different technologies can feed. The centre will immediately analyse the information and send it back out for parties tracking the freight. The centre will provide a single source where the shipper, carrier, customer or government can view the freight and its exact location. It will be the first of its kind in the country and, depending on its success, other cities will follow suit.
KC SmartPort has received nearly $6 million from the Dept of Transportation’s Intelligent Transportation Systems program. Key partners working with KC SmartPort include Cadre Technologies, Priority Logistics, Riverside Transport and Kansas City Southern. Various companies have provided freight shipments for the tests.
Cadre Technologies is working with KC SmartPort and its partners to blend the existing technologies with government technologies and conforming to the latest requirements from customs and the DHS.
