Doha - Qatar Post has recently piloted Motorola Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology as part of a wider initiative to measure the quality of postal services throughout the Middle East. RFID readers and other technology suppliers were part of the trial in a joint project with Emirates Post and Saudi Post.
Qatar Post, which is member of Universal Postal Union (UPU) Quality of Service Project Group Steering Committee, recently concluded a successful trial in 22 countries in the Arab region during which it deployed and tested both passive and semi-active RFID systems. This unique trial could pave the way for the use of cost-effective RFID technologies to track mail around the world.
Motorola XR480 fixed RFID readers, supplied with Motorola high-performance antennas, were installed along with other antennas in mail processing centers across Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia to track anonymous test envelopes containing RFID tags. This created a simulated environment of how mail moves through the postal system and help authorities better understand the time and route that mail takes on its journey from collection to delivery.
This trial will allow and help Qatar Post to make both short-term and long-term decisions about its future business. On a day-to-day basis, Qatar Post will be able to identify delays in the delivery process and make adjustments accordingly. On a long-term basis, it can evaluate the average route of a letter and assess whether it is following the most efficient course, altering routing accordingly. It also allows Qatar Post to see where any potential errors in its delivery processes might occur, so that these can be corrected before they impact customers or incur extra charges.
This unique trial also could ultimately lead to the adoption of RFID by postal companies around the world, providing them with a measurement matrix for international deliveries as post moves from one national carrier to another.
This trial will not only be important for the Arab region but will help the remaining countries` members to prove the success of RFID as a method to monitor post, reduce costs and provide better services for customers.
"Now that the pilot is completed successfully, the project results will be introduced to the entire region across 22 Arab countries, which are expected to revolutionise mail delivery in the area. New guidelines from the UPU mean that failure to prove the efficiency of postal delivery could result in fines for postal operators, yet previous RFID solutions enabling this were expensive as they relied on active RFID technologies," said Catina Aghayan, Quality & Development Consultant at Qatar Post.
© The Peninsula 2008
