During the past few years, logistics companies are increasingly investing in asset tracking technology to improve their supply chains. Since the demand for location tracking technology is increasing, the supply is also starting to increase. Supply increase occurs in two ways: the existing solution providers increasing output and solution providers increasing. One notable new provider is Apple. A couple of years ago, they released their AirTag. Many consumers have found success in using the AirTag to find their lost keys or wallet, but the companies who have tried AirTag haven’t found similar success. In their search for the best asset tracking solution, these companies have looked for a “commercial AirTag.”
Why Companies Are Looking for Asset Tracking
Shipment monitoring is vital for a few reasons. First, it helps you prevent loss. Your customers get frustrated when their package doesn’t arrive on time; they get even more disappointed if it never shows. Tracking the pallets the packages are on gives you insight into their location at all times while alerting you of unexpected delays.
It’s also important to monitor shipments to optimize your process. To optimize your process, you want to reduce waste. For example, think about the loading portion of your process. The trailer must be loaded before the driver leaves. This is common sense, but let’s take it one step further. How far in advance does the truck need to be loaded? The answer is not six hours before the driver leaves. Unfortunately, a lot of companies have their trucks loaded this early. Early loading may not seem like a big deal, but think about how much oil and gas is wasted while the truck is sitting, loaded before the driver even starts his shift. Asset tracking can inform you of details like this to help you prevent wasted gas and, ultimately, wasted money.
Increase Your ROI by Investing in AirFinder Everywhere
- Loss Prevention. Reduce the amount of loss that occurs during the supply chain process
- Location Coverage. AirFinder Everywhere uses a combination of GPS, Cellular, and WiFi to determine location everywhere
- Security Alerts. Know when a delay in shipment has occurred so the problem
can be addressed immediately.
What the AirTag Does Well
The AirTag uses Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology to provide users with precise location information. The AirTag was designed for consumers to keep track of everyday items. For example, someone may have bought an AirTag to help prevent them from losing their keys. To find them, all they have to do is look on their iPhone on the “Find My” app and see she dropped them on the sidewalk while walking into her house.
AirTag is helpful to the consumers it was built for, but when companies tried to gain the same result, they were disappointed at the outcome.
Where AirTag Misses the Mark
While precise location is great to have, it’s only great if it works at a commercial level. The AirTag has a lot of requirements to provide this level of precision. For one, you need an iPhone to track the AirTag on. Each person looking to locate the tags would have to have an iPhone connected to the tag. Even then, a manager at the warehouse looking to track a pallet on a truck wouldn’t be able to get the location because the distance between the two devices would be too far to track; the phone would say “out of range.” The UI associated with AirTags was not made for companies to use at a large scale.
Since the AirTag was created for the everyday consumer, they didn’t plan to sell hundreds or thousands of tags at a time. If a business wanted to use AirTag for asset tracking, they would have to go to several Apple stores or potentially make several orders online to get enough tags. Furthermore, the investment is more costly since it wasn’t intended to be sold in bulk.
How AirFinder Performs
AirFinder Everywhere was designed to help companies track their valuable assets. AirFinder provides logistics companies with the real-time location of their pallets while they are on the road. You don’t have to have a phone, and it doesn’t matter how far you are from the tag; you can see the location from anywhere at any time. AirFinder can tell you when a shipment was delayed, where a lost pallet ended up, and it can even show you historical data to help you make optimization decisions.
Since trailer tracking is so important for companies to be successful, it’s important to choose the solution built for location tracking at a commercial scale. Whether you want to track your returnable pallets or monitor your refer trailer, AirFinder can scale at the level you require because that’s what it was made to do. Even more, it’s completely configurable to your company’s specifications.
Choose the Commercial AirTag, AirFinder
To put it simply, AirTag performs well at what it was created to do, track consumers’ everyday items. It was not built to help companies at a commercial scale.
AirFinder Everywhere is what companies are looking for when they say they want a commercial AirTag to track their assets. AirFinder has helped many logistics companies improve their supply chains and prevent loss. To learn how AirFinder can help your company, book a demo with our team of experts.
