Cost Reduction Theft Prevention Durability   You tell us you have a 13,000 truck fleet. Now, there are only so many opportunities to cut a few pennies off the cost of producing a product, so you have to look elsewhere to improve margins. Accurate maintenance and tire tracking is the place... Cost Reduction      Our software and hardware provides comprehensive fleet management, including preventive maintenance, inspection, parts inventory, fuel, and tire management. It's only recently, since the margins in transportation have become squeezed so tightly, that companies are moving to computerize maintenance schedules. The costs of fuel and tires make this essential to stay competitive.   After labor and fuel, tires are the most significant cost component for transport fleets. A tire can enjoy several lives if properly regulated. With an average cost of $400 each, and as many as twelve to eighteen tires per truck, it becomes clear that this is a commodity to carefully preserve.   Tires can be retreaded up to four times and newer tires from cabs can be moved to trailers to extend their life. But if you don't keep close tabs over the tires, it's impossible to maximize their usage. If you figure a fleet of several hundred trucks, with eighteen wheels per vehicle, you get a feel for the complexity of the tracking.   Furthermore, with detailed records on tire usage, companies can avoid blowouts, which can cost as much as $4,000, with the expense of a road call and the likelihood that as many as four tires have to be replaced in such an event to ensure symmetry on the vehicle. It is estimated that a company achieves a return on investment within a year of computerizing its fleet. Theft Prevention      Theft is another significant issue. There have been cases in South America where the tires have been pulled right off of unattended trucks. In North America it usually happens more discreetly, with employees selling off good tires or switching at retread plants. If the tires are tagged with an RFID chip, you can verify the wear on a tire and whether your proper tire has been returned.   The technology underlying the process is a small radio frequency identification (RFID) chip or tag embedded in the tire itself, the entirety of which is read in a fraction of a second by a hand-held scanner. In principle, the RFID is not dissimilar from the bar code use to label every item in a supermarket. In practice, however, it is leaps and bounds ahead of it. There is none of that fumbling around you have seen with bar codes: We sell speed and accuracy. These chips can be scanned through obstructions. It doesn't even have to be line-of-sight to the chip. Durability      Durability is another key feature. Goodyear has road tested tagged tires over 230,000 miles and three retreadings in Australia. In addition, the bond that holds the transmitter antenna to the chip has proven to survive temperatures up to 400 Fahrenheit. We have the only chip in the world today that can be cured in tires and has a proven track record. Off the road      RFID has far wider applications than fleet management and tire tracking. Our prime specialists have been instrumental in adapting the system to the livestock, mining, and waste management industries. We are pursuing any service company that needs to follow products from point A to B and back again. Because of the robustness of the chips, it promises great monitoring of any product in which it is embedded.