In the intermodal transportation industry there is a growing need for better tracking of containers in transit. This would lead to improved handling operation, reduction of errors, increased throughput and the use of electronic data interchange (EDI). As the use of electronic tags is not generalized in the container shipping industry, automation of the container recognition process must be achieved through the identification numbers printed on the containers. It is in this context that TDC, the Montreal Port Authority, INO and CCTC have joined forces on an intermodal technology project designed to improve the efficiency and productivity of container movement through the Port. In a Canadian first, the development of a system that integrates automatic equipment identification (AEI) with a state-of-the-art optical character recognition (OCR) system for the automated identification of rail cars and containers is reported. (A*)
Abstract