Rick Williams

Manufacturing – A major tire manufacturer is going to insert RFID tags into its tires. The tags will store a unique number for each tire, which will be associated with the car’s vehicle identification number.

Pharmaceuticals – Pharmaceutical companies have embedded RFID chips in drug containers to track and avert the theft of highly controlled drugs, such as OxyContin.

Airlines – Continental Airlines uses RFID tags to track passenger bags, while Delta Airlines is tagging customer bags with RFID technology to reduce the number of lost bags and make it easier to route bags if customers change their flight plans.

Restaurants – A premier coffee chain is considering using RFID chips and readers to enable its suppliers to make after-hour deliveries to stores, which avoids the disruption of staff members during work hours.

Toll Roads – Many tolls roads in the United States use RFID technology to collect fees without the need for toll booth personnel.

Retail – ExxonMobil uses RFID technology for its “SpeedPass,” which instantly collects payment on gas stations from a tag on a driver’s keychain, while Wal-Mart is requesting that all their suppliers apply RFID tags to all cartons of goods delivered.

Seaports – Three seaport operators in the United States, which account for 70 percent of the world’s port operations, agreed to deploy RFID tags to track daily arriving containers.

Government – The U.S. Department of Defense is planning to use RFID technology to trace military supply shipments.

Corporate & Municipal – Australia placed RFID tags in employee uniforms to aid in deterring theft. The same idea would work well in a corporate environment to help control desktop computers, networking equipment, and personal digital assistants or handheld computers.

Credit Card – Visa is combining smart cards and RFID chips so people can conduct transactions without having to use cash or coins.

Banks – The European Central Bank is considering embedding RFID chips in Euro notes to combat counterfeiters and money-launderers. This also would enable banks to count large amounts of cash in seconds.

People Tracking – The United Nations uses RFID technology to track the movements of its personnel.