Breakthroughs and Challenges in Live Tracking Technologies

The demand for live tracking of goods is on the rise. Businesses need accountability for shipped items and the automation that live tracking provides. Customers also want to know the exact location of their goods, whether it’s to coordinate meeting the package upon arrival or to confirm its delivery. However, live-tracking most shipments remains cost-prohibitive. While tracking technology continues to advance, businesses must carefully evaluate the pros and cons of current options and determine the best use cases for ensuring safe shipment delivery. Currently, the most prevalent option involves tracking devices with lithium batteries. These devices, attached to shipments, provide constant updates on the freight's movement. Despite their long-lasting and rechargeable nature, lithium batteries are considered dangerous goods requiring safe disposal. Moreover, these expensive devices necessitate a reverse logistics plan for their retrieval and management, adding complexity and costs. Another challenge with these devices is the need for manual pairing and activation. Warehouse or desk agents must manually associate shipment references with tracker device IDs and ensure activation. This process is prone to errors, such as mistyping long IDs or forgetting to activate the device, ultimately limiting the scalability of deployment. Dark zones, where devices receive no coverage and cannot communicate, also pose a problem. Device suppliers have added capabilities like Wi-Fi, GPS, LTE, LoRa, and NBIoT to improve data quality and shipment location tracking. However, these capabilities require high-powered batteries, further increasing device costs. Form factor is another consideration. Tracking devices are often bulky and not discreet, making it obvious to potential bad