Cambridgeshire Business: Jiiva Tag Evaluation

Over the last few months I have been evaluating some really interesting tracking technology from Vilant systems. The technology is called a Jiiva Tag. With the assistance of Stuart Rivett the Managing Director of Parcelroute based in Aylesbury and the B2C Europe group we have been putting this exciting technology through its paces on trips around Europe

The small tag can be hidden inside packets and parcels and "sniffs" the 3G cellular network whenever it is stationary. In much the same way as the signal strength indicator on the screen of your mobile phone. The tracking information is gathered by interrogation of the 3G cellular network so it doesn't need any fixed infrastructure. There is also a built in light meter to detect if the package is opened.

We put the tag in a trunking vehicle that was going from Aylesbury, London, Netherlands and Belgium and I was able to monitor progress almost in real time on my tablet. A screen print of the journey is pictured above and we also download the data file - for more in depth analysis. We repeated the exercise on several trips. There was a 1-2 hour delay while the information was collected from the 3G network operators but this was more than adequate for diagnostic measurement.

Parcel supply chains are becoming increasingly complex and eCommerce companies need to see what is happening. Omni-Channel eCommerce will only emphasise the need for better diagnostic measurement. The big thing will be independent technology and independent assessment - and this is a core competence of Delivery Management. We have also started doing some independent measurement of "Down Stream Access" performance for domestic mail performance in the UK.

I would just like to publicly say thank a big thank you to Stuart Rivett and his team for helping with the technology evaluation. Like me - Stuart understands how important transparency is in our industry. From my trials to date it is clear that Vilant has put together some very clever sensing technology that can be used to diagnose complex supply chain issues.

Over the next few months Delivery Management will evaluating different use cases for this technology and at Post Expo in Vienna we will be providing some feedback to the industry about the use of smart edge connected devices and remote sensing in our industry. Happy to help any eCommerce company analyse and diagnose their supply chain.

#ecommerce

#parcels

#performance

Particular thanks to Vilant, ParcelRoute and BtC Europe for their assistance in this evaluation