Implementation of RFID with SMS Gateway in Mobile Phones for Logistics and Courier Service Usman Umar School of Computer Science & Engineering, FTMS College, Technology Park Malaysia Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia raddamech@gmail.com Joshua Samual Lecturer, School of Computer Science & Engineering, FTMS College, Technology Park Malaysia Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia joshua@ftms.edu.my Abstract The logistic and courier service industry is a multi-billion dollar industry that helps entities to efficiently send and receive goods/services from one location to another within a stipulated time frame. Being a very lucrative and dynamic industry, so many investors have keyed into the industry and set up multinational Logistic and courier companies and these companies are in constant competition with one another so as to have the largest market share of the industry. Smaller logistic and courier companies are also coming up all the time and trying to create a niche for themselves with which they can be able to survive the competition of the multinational courier companies.at the heart of every market competition is the need to cut costs without significantly reducing the quality/efficiency of the service being rendered by the competitor. As with all other industries, the use of Information Technology (IT) has been imbibed with the sole aim of maximizing efficiency and cutting unnecessary costs. IT has transformed the Logistic and Courier Service Industry from the traditional sorting and shipping of parcels into an efficient matrices enough to handle large scale fragile and security sensitive shipments with maximum precision. This research is aimed at discovering the loopholes associated with the present use of IT in the Logistic and Courier service Industry with a view to getting an edge which a company can adopt in order to have a competitive advantage over its competitors. Keywords: Logistics and Courier Service, SMS gateway, mobile technology 1. Introduction Logistic and Courier Service has been in use by man for centuries and its earliest form was when people relied on the service for to deliver telegrams and other messages by horse, bicycle or even by foot. The earliest Logistic and Courier Service is the Universal Parcel Service otherwise known as UPS which was founded in the year 1907. As a result of increased necessity to move items from one location to another, other entrants came in to the business during the 1970 s. Today s larger logistic and courier service companies deploy the use of sophisticated network of systems to deliver shipments. (Definition of Courier Service, 2010) The modern role of a logistic and courier company is to seamlessly collect and sort out packages, ensure the packages are what the customer specifies them to be, weigh the packages, seal and then label the packages. The sealed and labeled packages will then be further sorted out and delivery will be planned by strategically mapping out routes through which each of the numerous packages will be delivered within the given time desired by the customer. At the delivery point, the receiver of the shipment will have to sign that the shipment has been received for documentary and legal purposes. 1.1 Problem Statement ISSN: 2289-2265 Page 129
Location of a parcel not easily accessed by a client. Poor availability of internet which makes it difficult for customer to track their goods Shipments are tampered by unauthorized parties That the system has all the required security features so as to avoid hacking of the system. No good useability features, which will make it easier to use. 1.2 Purpose The purpose of this research will be to deliver a robust and functional information system that will see to the satisfaction of both the logistic and Courier Company and also the clients that will send/receive shipments through the use of an Internet enabled device. The core functionalities of the system will be the ability of the system to: Create shipments not necessary online To track and monitor the parcel through SMS and automated VOIP calls To send out an alert as the shipment passes a specific milestone on its way to delivery Enable an intending sender of a shipment to send it without visiting the office of the logistic and courier company. 2. Literature Review For the purpose of this research, the researchers will make use of Universal Parcel Service (UPS) as a case study as well as make some comparison between UPS and DHL. What the company does is to pick up parcel from a client and deliver it to a destination based on the client s choice of time duration and delivery point. The rate charged for each delivery is dependent upon the distance between the point of origin to the point of delivery, the weight and volume of the parcel and the type of service required by the customer. To this end, UPS makes use of an internet based system which is used for all the company s activities ranging from creation and shipment of parcels, rudimentary tracking of shipments, printing of invoices, updating delivery status of parcels etc. It is a known fact that every system comes with its attendant flaws and after a careful review of the system it was observed that there are high cases of missing or misplaced parcels on a daily basis. The use of technology in all facets of human endeavor cannot be over emphasized. With the aid of technology man has become more efficient with the attendant consequence of higher expectations than ever before. As a result of this higher demand, industry leaders are being forced to research and find out what is it exactly that their customers demand for and how to satisfy that demand at the barest minimum cost. (Technocrati, 2013) Mobile technology can fit into this it is undergoing an aggressive rate of adoption and therefore it can easily be used by everybody to track shipments. This aggressive rate of usages can be observed based on observed trends. In the year 2004, there were 1,752 Billion cellphone subscribers worldwide compared to 1,158 billion that was in operation in 2002. (ITU, 2005a) Mobile technology has evolved through the years that mobile phones can be deployed to a variety of other uses aside the traditional calling and sending of short messages. With the use of a smart phone, users can be able to now keep in touch with the world through the social media, receive and reply emails on the go, and so many other customizable features to suite the taste of the user. SMS gateway is a telecommunication infrastructure that allows for the sending and receiving of short messages from the telecommunication network automatically ISSN: 2289-2265 Page 130
Comparison between UPS and another Logistic and Courier Service Company Note: The rate is from 1-5, with 1 being very poor and 5 Excellent UPS DHL Prompt Delivery 4 3 Customer Care 4 4 Online tracking 3 4 Tampering of parcels 3 3 2.1 Proposed Solution By deploying the use of the RFID chips, human errors will be minimized as there will be little human interference. It will also help to cut costs because it will eliminate disorientation, obscuration and the need to read many barcodes at a time. The proposed solution will work in the following way: The identification of each RFID will then be securely tagged to either a mobile number or a social media account or an email address or to an automated VOIP server or to all of the above Medias so the stakeholders can be able to know the exact location of the parcel at every given time. The system will also be programmed to send out reports when the parcels pass through each specified milestone on its way to delivery. As the parcel passes every specified milestone on its way to delivery, an automated sms will be sent to the client as to the present location of the parcel. The information on the location of the parcel can also be passed to the automated server, which will place a call to the client and notify the client of the location of the parcel. Alternately, a client can be able to send a short sms to the gateway to have a reply with the exact location of the parcel or he can place a call to the automated VOIP server in order to get location of the parcel This will be revolutionary because a parcel can be tracked to its last known location and from there can further be tracked to its exact present location 2.4 MERITS OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM Figure 2: RFID chip The deployment of the proposed RFID chip will bring many positives to the Logistic and Courier Service Industry through the following ways: i. The system will have minimal man power requirements when it comes to sorting and arranging of shipments ISSN: 2289-2265 Page 131
ii. It will be very easy to trace a parcel to its location iii. It will increase customer satisfaction as they can easily know the location and status of their delivery iv. The system will be more cheaper to operate because there will be no much need for human labor v. The deployment of the system will make it feasible for the company to interact with their customers through a portal. vi. The risk of lost parcels will be greatly minimized vii. The proposed system will give a precise and accurate drop off and pick off points for shipments viii. Time spent sorting out shipments will be drastically reduced ix. Clients can be able to track their shipments and know the approximate time of delivery x. Mismanagement of parcels will be reduced to the barest minimum 3. Research Methodology In doing all of the above research paper will require the use of quantitative and qualitative data collection tools and will further be driven by qualitative epistemological vision that will be able to position the research within the needed social and cultural context. Furthermore the methodology will have to take into consideration the social construction of the participants. Careful concern will be given to ensure that all data obtained is strictly related to the research so as to prevent the inclusion of irrelevant data, which might jeopardize the result of the research. There will be appropriate quality control checks at each stage of the research in order to check and ensure that the research is right on track. 4. Data Collection Data collection will be done through surveys, office observation, personal interviews with staffs and clients and going through log of courier companies. The observation will be done using a well layered protocol that will be aimed at getting all the discrete and not too discrete signals that will be used to build up the data needed for the research. The interview will also have its own protocol and will be developed to be semi structured interviews. Multiple interview sections will be conducted for each participant in order to get to know what really the interviewees thought about the subject matter being discussed. Participants will also be asked to gauge the conformity of previous researches. 5. Data Analysis and Finding 5.1 Observation For the purpose of this research, the system has to be deployed on a small scale logistics and courier company and then when the attendant flaws are observed, the system gets finetuned to be used by larger corporations. MedEx a logistics and courier company was chosen for this task and a site visit was organized to the premises of the company. The site visit was conducted on 16-03-2014 When parcels are brought to the company, the parcels are first screened and then weighed to check the weight of the parcel. The customer is then given a form to fill his/her bio data, the location he wants the parcel to be delivered, the preferred delivery time and the preferred payment method. The payment methods are either the sender pays the complete payment for the shipment, or make an installment payment which the receiver will complete at ISSN: 2289-2265 Page 132
the point of collection or for the receiver to make the whole payment for the shipment. The client can also opt to insure the parcel in case of any unforeseen circumstance. Once the client completes all the above processes, the parcel is wrapped, sealed and labeled with the name and address of the receiver of the parcel and then a tracking number for the goods is handed out to the send for reference purposes. The parcel is then sent for shipping. 5.2 Data Analysis and Findings After the above exercise, the data below was generated: Question Yes No Good information Management 26 4 Prompt Delivery 8 22 Efficient Customer Service 28 2 Expensiveness 30 0 Online activities 23 7 Misplaced Delivery 25 5 Security 27 3 Response to client criticism 29 1 Tampered Parcels 25 5 Table 1: Survey Data Figure 3: A graph of the surveys The graph above shows the data that was gathered from the correspondents. The Y-axis shows the number of correspondents that either agree or don t agree to a question asked while the X-axis has the various questions asked. From the data we have been able to obtain the following information: i. 86.7% of the correspondents believed that the company has a good information management ii. 73.3% of the correspondents have experience delay in delivery of their parcels iii. 93.3% of customers experienced good customer client relations with the company iv. 100% of the clients believed that the services offered by the company are expensive v. 76.7% of the clients have used the online portal of the company vi. 83.3% of the correspondents have experienced wrongful delivery of parcels vii. 90% of the correspondents are assured of the security of their parcels viii. 96.7% of the correspondents believe the company responds positively to criticisms ix. 83.3% of the correspondents have experienced issues of tampered parcels 6. Future Enhancement ISSN: 2289-2265 Page 133
Technology is very dynamic; it is ever evolving to satisfy the needs of the everdemanding populace. The future trend for using the RFID will be to use satellites to track the real time location of parcels using the GPS. 7. Conclusion And Recommendation From the above information it can be realized that the company should deploy cutting edge technology that will see to that customers can be able to create shipments online without having visiting the company physically. The system should be able to automate the process of packaging and processing the parcels and then scheduling the delivery of each of the packages. The system should be able to map out efficient routes for the delivery of the parcels and should have the feature that will be able to accurately pin point the location of a parcel at any given time. The system should be able to provide automatic updates as to the location of parcels through sms gateway and automated VOIP calls References [1] Definition of Courier Service. (2010, 06 15). Retrieved 2 12, 2014, from ehow.com: http://www.ehow.com/about_5095279_definition-courier-service.html [2] Definition of Courier Service. (2010, 06 15). Retrieved 2 12, 2014, from ehow.com: http://www.ehow.com/about_5095279_definition-courier-service.html [3] abr.com. (2006, 01 20). How RFID works. Retrieved 01 15, 2014, from www.abr.com: http://www.abr.com/how-does-rfid-work [4] Perfect, P. (2012) Multiple Parcel Tracking & Management http://www.parcelperfect.com/resources/multi-parcel-tracking.html [5] Johnson, B. (2012) why traceability is the next great challenge in manufacturing. Slate [6] Bevan N (1998) Achieving Quality in Use through User Centred Requirements Engineering. [7] Bevan N and Azuma M (1997) Quality in use: Incorporating human factors into the software engineering lifecycle. In: Proceedings of the Third IEEE International Software Engineering [8] Thomas C., Dillon A., Maguire M., Sweeney M. (1996) Usability Context Analysis a practical guide, v4.02, NPL Usability Services, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex, TW11 0LW. [9] The Technocrati Handbook 2012 [10] The International Journal For Logistics and Courier 2003 ISSN: 2289-2265 Page 134