LPWA: Tracking Pallets Across Borders (Use Case)

Pallet specialist RM2 and mobile operator AT&T are using the Mobile IoT to streamline international logistics
 
The global logistics industry has about 15 billion pallets in circulation at any one time.  Whereas many of these pallets are made of wood and can only make a handful of trips, RM2 International has created a hardwearing fiberglass composite pallet called BLOCKPal™, which can make more than 100 trips before needing repairs.  RM2, a leading supplier of pallet solutions, is now sealing a cellular module inside one of the legs of the composite pallets to enable customers to track their position and movements online using its RM2ELIoT solution.
RM2ELIoT (The Electronic Link to the Internet of Things) identifies the pallet’s location using LTE-M, one of the standardised Mobile Internet of Things (IoT) technologies that utilises  cellular networks and licensed spectrum. RM2ELIoT employs various network-based techniques to pinpoint the location of the pallets, thus capturing granular data about their movements. “RM2ELIoT gives our clients the ability to capture and analyse large amounts of geo-location data in their supply chains down to the pallet level,” says David Simmons, Chief Technology Officer for RM2.  “This level of visibility and granularity can reveal new ways of managing supply chains, identifying bottlenecks, handling product recalls, improving security and highlighting many other supply chain inefficiencies.”
RM2 selected LTE-M because the technology can penetrate deep inside buildings, containers and refrigerated units, while consuming very little power – the modules inside the pallets could last for a decade. As operators across the world are deploying LTE-M, RM2’s customers will be able to track their pallets across international borders. “In North America, for example, we need to be able to track pallets across Mexico, the US and Canada, which we will be able to do with LTE-M through AT&T’s roaming agreements,” says David Simmons.
 
Set to roll out at scale
After testing the hardware with AT&T in San Francisco, RM2 is now running pilots in live supply chains within North America. David Simmons says RM2’s customers will use the data being generated by the pilot to see how they can improve their supply chains. The data enables customers to calculate how long a pallet dwells in one place and identify inefficiencies. A secure cloud-based data platform enables customers to access the data generated by the pallets via APIs, web portals or a bespoke system.
Having evaluated several short-range and wide-area wireless technologies, RM2 believes LTE-M is the most efficient and effective way to track pallets.  “We looked at RFID and handheld scanners and took the decision to include an RFID tag in the pallet to help integrate with existing systems,” says David Simmons. “However, with RFID-only systems you have to roll out an awful lot of hardware to cover every door and there can be 200 doors on each distribution centre. We wanted a system that didn’t ask the customer to do anything.”
The RM2ELIoT solution depends on two innovations – the low power wide area (and low cost) connectivity provided by LTE-M and the durability and ruggedness of the composite pallet – wooden pallets don’t provide sufficient protection for a wireless module.  RM2 is marketing RM2ELIoT as having a “10 year zero maintenance life span.” The cost per connection is also a major consideration: David Simmons notes that Internet of Things solutions are very different economic propositions from conventional cellular connections, in that there is a lot less traffic, but a lot more end points.
 
Watch a short interview with Christopher Gibbs from RM2 at Mobile World Congress 2017