Page 26 - On The Move - Volume 16, Issue 3

By Mark Sargeant

Mark Sargeant is Vice President of
Logistics and Business Develop-
.S. dealers annually have sold 17 million vehicles or more for four ment at AutoMap, an automotive
inventory-tracking and auditing
Uyears straight. By any definition, that’s a lot of inventory. Which begs company. He can be reached at
the question. How do dealerships keep track of these assets in a dynamic mark.sargeant@automap.us.
business where vehicles are frequently sold, serviced or otherwise moved?

Fortunately, we are living in the age of the How do dealerships For asset location, a version of Bluetooth
Internet of Things. That makes the logistics known as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
of tracking and managing vehicle inventory keep track of is sometimes preferred. BLE consumes
easier and more accurate than ever before. less energy and is cheaper than standard
inventory in a Bluetooth while maintaining the same
Already vast, the IoT is a rapidly growing range.
network of devices or things connected dynamic business
to the Internet. Simply put, any stand- It also transmits data or receives
alone Internet-connected device that can where vehicles instructions from other Bluetooth devices,
be monitored or controlled from a remote and is compatible with a large installed
location is considered part of IoT. This frequently are base of web-connected devices.
includes people-to-machine and machine-
to-machine interactions. sold, serviced or Like RFID, Bluetooth comes in different
flavors as well. Some systems use a simple
otherwise moved?
Today, there are more connected devices tag system that can be used like RFID,
than there are people. Research firm while others can tie directly in with the
Gartner claims the IoT will include more automobiles technology and supply total
than 26 billion connected devices by 2020. used in warehousing, is technology without information on the vehicle and guarantee
an internal power source that uses radio the tag is with the vehicle. BLE’s capability
New cars are “things” we refer to as waves created by an RFID reader to send to communicate easily with smartphones,
inventory, and those things can be better its signal. laptops and tablets and antenna systems
managed with the right vehicle-locator separates it from RFID solutions.
technology. Two of the most common Active RFID, on the other hand, uses a
wireless technologies used are RFID and battery or some other dedicated power So how does that work on the lot?
Bluetooth. source. Whenever a Bluetooth-enabled car is
moved by a team member carrying a
Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) Advantages of passive RFID include its smartphone with a detecting app, the car’s
systems communicate between an antenna relatively low per-tag cost, as well as its exact new location can be picked up and
or a reader and a tag attached to an small size and light weight. Active RFID can relayed. If a smartphone is not present
object, while Bluetooth technology is used transmit uninterrupted radio signals. when a car is moved, the new position
to communicate between two Bluetooth- can be picked up as soon as another team
compatible devices. Perhaps the greatest disadvantage of an member’s phone passes within range.
RFID system is in its overall cost, which is
As inventory management technology high compared to Bluetooth. Think of it as a form of crowdsourcing.
evolved, RFID was the initial logical
successor to barcode scanning. To work, Although passive RFID tags may be Vehicle tracking systems ensure there are
RFID requires three components: tags, inexpensive, the required RFID readers are no surprises. The right car is always there
scanners (or readers) and a database for not and can cost more than $5,000 each. when you need to show it.
storing collected information. Tags include When the antenna fails the entire system is
microchips that carry information about the paralyzed. RFID tags can be easily moved If you’re a dealer with hundreds or
scanned product or a serial number that from a vehicle to spoof the system. In thousands of vehicles on your lot, the
matches to a record in the database. addition, RFID tags do not guarantee the Internet of Things will make your life easier,
location of the asset, merely the location of no matter which wireless technology you
There are two types of RFID: passive and the tag. choose.
active. Passive, the most common form
24 www.maada.com