Luggage Cart Tracking With RFID Technology

RFiD Discovery's Luggage and Shopping Cart Tracking System improves the management of luggage and shopping carts in travel and retail environments.

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Providing luggage carts and shopping carts in the right place at the right time can significantly enhance customer experience

 

Airports are doing what they can to attract more passengers through their gates. The more passengers that pass through an airport, the greater the airport's revenue. Many factors will affect an individual's choice of airport, one of which will be the overall customer experience and the availability of luggage carts is seen by many as a good indicator of how well an airport is taking care of them. 

RFiD Discovery is a low-cost, high impact solution to support luggage cart management teams, ensuring luggage cart availability across the airport estate. Fitting luggage carts with an RFiD Discovery system from Paragon ID supports the efficient management of carts by monitoring the build-up, dispersal, and flow of carts around the retail area or airport to provide a live view of cart availability and real-time alerts of cart shortages.

By highlighting areas where luggage or shopping carts are left, it supports efficient retrieval or redistribution. The system also delivers valuable data about customer movements by recording the total time spent in-store or in a particular area, for example queuing at the till.

In addition, individually identifying carts enables organizations to build a history of utilization including the number of trips or approximate distance travelled and detect any under or over usage of particular carts. It also helps determine whether there are too many carts and if the pool size can be reduced. 

How does luggage and shopping cart tracking work?

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Each cart is fitted with a passive RFID tag, discretely placed so that it is protected from the contents of the cart and users remain unaware of it. The tags do not have batteries and do not need to be maintained

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RFID antennas are installed at cart collection points and other areas where they tend to be left as well as significant gateways such as entrance doors

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Information collected by the readers is sent back to the central RFiD Discovery database which can be interfaced with other systems to create alerts or provide data for analysis

 

 

shopping trolley in supermarket

Benefits of luggage and shopping cart tracking

Optimizes utilization of carts 
Accurate monitoring of the performance of cart service contractors
Builds a maintenance history for each cart
• Cart pool size can be monitored to allow a reduction in cart capitalization and associated maintenance costs
• Faster cart collection as the carts will be redistributed quicker to areas that are understocked
 
 
 
 

Pilot project to track trolleys at Heathrow Airport, England

RFiD Discovery has successfully completed a three-month pilot project to track the movements of luggage cart at Heathrow Airport in England to improve luggage cart management and demand forecasting.

At the heart of the project was the monitoring of luggage cart movements into and out of the baggage reclaim area at the airport’s terminal 4. Having established that the solution provides the desired data, Heathrow is now looking at how to roll out the solution across its terminals.

For the pilot project, each of the approximately 2,000 luggage carts at terminal 4 was fitted with a passive RFID label, placed so that it was protected from the contents of the luggage cart and users remained unaware of it. RFID readers were installed at all entrances and exits to the baggage reclaim area to detect if any carts are entering the area or leaving it.

"Providing luggage carts in the right place at the right time can significantly enhance passenger experience. The data collected by the system will enable our forecasting teams to improve modelling tools, so the replenishment process can be planned more effectively. In addition, live data of stock levels will warn the luggage cart management teams if cart numbers in key areas are getting low."
Ben Wagenaar, Innovation Technologist at Heathrow

 

RFiD Discovery Healthcare Trolley brochure

 

Tracking Airport Luggage Carts with RFID Brochure

Download the information sheet to find out more about how RFiD Discovery can support airport luggage cart tracking. Click here to view the PDF.

 

 

 

 

Contact Paragon ID

For more information about our luggage and shopping cart tracking solutions