PDT Ltd joined forces with Autotrakker Ltd to produce a system involving the Symbol Technologies PPT2800 and a specially engineered GPS sled, which is able to locate a point to within a cars length using specially created software.

Autotrakker had developed the product for the car logistics market place where cars are shipped around the world from the manufacturing site and are often held in large car compounds covering many square miles and trying to locate a specific vehicle in a compound particularly when it has been put in a different location to the one the system thinks is almost impossible and certainly time consuming, which in turn costs money.

The new systems allows the operator to put the car in a spare place in the compound and scan the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) plate on the car to uniquely identify the vehicle and then active the GPS system to take a reading of the position and enter the direction of the car. This is then passed across a wireless network back to the main system where the information is stored. When the car is to be retrieved the operator is given the task and the GPS system will drive him to the location giving both direction and range information on the screen.

The units will shortly be deployed to do damage reporting and this will be able to identify it as early as possible and also know who is responsible for paying the costs of the repair. The main cost saving is shown to be the faster locating of the vehicle and also the ability to identify a mistake very much earlier in the cycle saving the costs of reverse flow logistics.

The system is now being used to record the loading of used and second hand vehicles being loaded on large ships for movement around the world. Many of the vehicles need to be pushed or fork lifted onto the ships. They are again held in large car compounds and often difficult to locate before the system was introduced. Now the system copes with loading large numbers of vehicles every day and shortly will have some added features including visual recording of vehicles onto the ship via a wireless and secure high quality camera system.