Air Canada Cargo to implement RFID tracking solution

Published: Wednesday, May 11, 2016

CargoAware, a division of Franwell, Inc., the proven leader in radio frequency identification (RFID) track and trace technologies, announced recently that Air Canada Cargo is moving forward with implementation of a large-scale RFID implementation that will track cargo and mail shipments across additional stations in its network. Initial implementation and solution validation was agreed to in September of 2015, with Montreal Canada and Frankfurt Germany being the first two stations installed, at that time. Boston is now on-line, with Chicago being installed. Franwell will be partnering with Jamison RFID, View Technologies and other strategic partners to provide the air cargo services provider with a complete, end-to-end RFID RTLS tracking solution.



“The RFID solution establishes Air Canada Cargo as an industry leader, and sets a new standard for quality. Tracking shipments at the piece level with this solution will provide us with gains in process efficiency and valuable edge data that will generate enhanced metrics and business intelligence. We can use that information to improve our own operations, and also to provide improved service and shipment visibility to our customers,” said Lise-Marie Turpin, Vice-President, Air Canada Cargo.


Franwell’s solution combines best-in-class RAIN RFID technologies, including Jamison RFID’s Mod3 Smart RFID portals used to capture choke-point/pass-through to track cargo movement, long-range Echo smart antennas for real-time piece-level visibility of contents for pallet build automation and validation, and Zebra Technologies RFID printers for a streamlined tagging process. The solution is integrated with existing Air Canada operational software for seamless data messaging, providing real-time data on location changes and ULD build-up and breakdown of pieces to containers.


As a result of the RFID deployment, Air Canada Cargo expects a marked increase in productivity and higher customer satisfaction levels when the system is deployed.