European logistics company Christian Salvesen has won recognition for its innovative use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.  The company was selected as a finalist for the prestigious RFID Best Pilot Award at the annual RFID Breakthrough Awards held in London.

Nominated by their RFID systems supplier Secureseal, Christian Salvesen has made significant gains in operating efficiency from a RFID-based system.  Roll out of Secureseal system began in September 2005 and the system now provides real time visibility on the location of 1500 Christian Salvesen trailers with a detection network extending to 45 sites in the UK.

The system was designed from the ground-up using newly developed low power RFID tagging technology linked to GPRS communications.  Providing a straightforward 'site location' solution, the system eliminates the need for costly units and infrastructure and cost up to 75% less than conventional trailer tracking systems.

The system is fully operational nationwide across 40+ sites, giving management and local depot staff visibility of the entire trailer fleet and demonstrating the promised savings. The whole fleet is now 'visible' nationwide, the time previously taken by workshop staff tracking down missing trailers has been hugely reduced and daily manual trailer checks at each depot have been eliminated.