OSFS Tracking Device – Case Study

One Source Freight Solutions was contacted by the President of a local Election Printing and Services company in early 2016.

This company had been contracted to supply the election ballots for the 2016 Presidential Election for several states Nationwide.

It was estimated there would be close to 200 palletized orders routed from their facility in the coming months which would require a variety of service modes to locations throughout the United States.

Improved visibility was a key priority for this project.

Several concerns drove their request for an improved solution above and beyond the traditional sporadic GPS updates.

Specified requirements included:

• Provide internal and external updates of order’s location several times per day
• Verify order is following its pre-determined / time specific path in route to its final destination.
• Receive alerts if the order travels outside of the pre-determined path.
• Provide real-time visibility to specific contacts with a “need to know” status
• Proactively address any challenges related to delays in transit.
• Provide delivery arrival updates to receiving department contacts
• Safeguard against tampering, theft or hijacking concerns

A small tracking device was selected that could meet and exceed the above requirements.  Several devices were purchased along with the recommended cellular service to monitor each device.  A process was then created to oversee the dispatch of the order, location while in transit, delivery of the order and return of each device.  The tracking device was placed in a pre-addressed FedEx envelope and affixed to a pallet for every order.  In each case the receiving contact was alerted to retrieve this envelope upon delivery and set aside for FedEx to pick up so it could be quickly returned to Phoenix for its next outbound journey.

Batteries became fully charged within the course of a day and the battery life had the ability to last for several weeks.

The project was completed in Nov 2016. A meeting was later set to review the entire project. Our client reported 100% satisfaction. Each order delivered on time and met the necessary visibility requirements.

GPS Tracking Unit – Example from previous shipment