News Brief – TransCore Debuts Research and Development of Breakthrough Global Container Tracking Technology

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TransCore, a global leader in radio frequency identification (RFID) and mobile satellite communication technology, will showcase recent research and development work that lead to the prototype of an advanced shipping container tracking and monitoring solution, initially undertaken for the European Space Agency and for which the Canadian Government recently made a multimillion dollar investment. The system can provide continuous visibility of intermodal containers and eliminates the line-of-sight complication that hinders global tracking of containers while in transit.

The worldwide container traffic by sea, rail and truck was estimated to reach approximately 19 million units by 2012, yet there was no way to track and monitor individual containers from the point of origin to the point of destination on a continuous basis. While there has been an emerging growth of existing terrestrial and satellite asset tracking products, there was not a product that could continuously track containers across global international boundaries without times of outages or lost communications due to blocked line of sight when containers were stacked.

The prototype was successfully demonstrated in January 2009 on a trans-Atlantic voyage of dangerous goods. The ITS America demonstration is the first time it will be displayed for the mainstream market.

When & Where: The prototype demonstration will be featured at the ITS America Annual Meeting on Monday through Wednesday, June1-3, 2009 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Pineapple Fountain demonstration area

Dick Schnacke, TransCore’s vice president of Industry Relations, will be a featured speaker at the Monday Technical Session from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Chesapeake – F meeting room, providing on overview of the business and technical complexities that lead to this groundbreaking technology capable of source-to-destination monitoring and control of shipping container cargo.