NEW YORK-I.D. Systems Inc., a newly public company, has deployed its patented wireless monitoring and tracking system to help the U.S. Postal Service keep its promise of “We deliver.”
The company, headquartered in New York’s Silicon Alley, developed its technology, which uses the unlicensed 900 MHz band, to overcome the limits inherent in two other kinds of available systems. Bar-coding requires a line-of-site and therefore cannot follow an item as it moves through a system outside the range of a scanner.
Both the read-only and read-write radio-frequency systems typically available today require the use of large mainframe computers. They also can be highly dependent on stationary readers that the RF identification tags must pass by just so in order to be read accurately, said Gregory B. Smith, director of marketing and communications.
“Our patented architecture uses two-way (communications). Our tags get 100 percent read regardless of orientation. We use decentralized computers as opposed to large mainframes,” he said.
“Our (RF tracking) tags are not active, so they can co-exist with other RF systems in the same range. Our system can be linked to any kind of system, a Web server, a [local area network], a mainframe.”
The freight rail industry, which is taking a look at I.D. Systems’ technology, offers a glimpse into additional possibilities for expanding the range of applications, Smith said. Global positioning system and cellular or satellite modems could be hooked into the RF tracking system so that information can be reported back in real time to headquarters from remote locations.
To identify bottlenecks, the Postal Service inserts I.D. System’s radio transmitters into letter-size envelopes it sends periodically through three of its facilities, in Houston, San Francisco and northern Virginia. This fall, it will add another 250 locations, according to an agreement signed with I.D. Systems in 1997.
Besides keeping tabs on the through-put of mail, the Postal Service also has deployed I.D. Systems’ technology at several bulk handling facilities to keep track of fleet vehicles, including forklifts, jeeps and airfreight tugboats.
“The automated system provides access control and vehicle security, helps ensure compliance with [Occupational Safety and Health and Administration] requirements, establishes driver accountability for vehicle damage, records the impact of collisions, tracks vehicle location and movement (in real and historical time), allows two-way communication with drivers, helps enforce preventative maintenance schedules and monitors vehicle utilization and fleet efficiency,” the company said.
Founded in 1993, I.D. Systems is the brainchild of Kenneth S. Ehrman, a Stanford University industrial engineering graduate, and two alumni executives of Ultralife Batteries Inc.: Bruce Jagid and Martin G. Rosansky. Ultralife is a Newark, N.J., developer of lithium-ion solid-polymer rechargeable batteries for wireless phones and other portable electronic devices.
In late June, I.D. Systems sold 2 million shares at $7 each through an underwriting syndicate led by Gilford Securities Inc., New York. The company’s stock is traded on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market.
In the prospectus for its initial public offering, this David of a company identified several Goliaths as its primary competitors: Unova Inc., Motorola Inc., Texas Instruments Inc., Raytheon Co., Kasten Chase Applied Research and Micron Communications.
Its relative size notwithstanding, I.D. Systems counts among its customers a number of major players in addition to the Postal Service.
In late April, the federal General Services Administration awarded the company a five-year contract for automated data collection equipment, wireless data communications hardware, mobile computers and information technology software used for vehicle and asset management.
The contract provides terms of sale and pre-negotiated prices while also waiving competitive bidding requirements for orders up to a set amount of money. Authorized purchasers under the GSA contract include military and federal civilian agencies, quasi-public entities, the District of Columbia, certain state and local governments and a number of international organizations.
Also in April, I.D. Systems announced several other fleet management contract awards: Federal Express Corp.’s primary airline hub in Memphis, Tenn., Hallmark Cards Inc. and a pilot project for Ford Motor Co.
Avis Rent A Car System Inc., which has been testing I.D. Systems technology for expediting rental car return, repair and inventory management at one of its locations, is evaluating whether to expand the pilot to additional sites.
In a rental car facility, manual input of data sometimes will be necessary, as in the case of providing further details about vehicle damage.
“Our devices would allow manual input, but that part of the system is still evolving,” Smith commented.
