The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted a patent (U.S. Patent No. 6981828) for Roadway Sealed Divider Service. Available only from Roadway Express, the service is designed to provide protection and verifiable security for customers’ goods during transit.
“Roadway Sealed Divider Service was developed to address specific customer needs, such as safe transport of fragile products and verifiable security to meet new, stricter government regulations,” says Mike Smid, president and chief executive officer of Akron, Ohio-based Roadway. “We are proud to be the only provider to offer a patented solution for shipment protection and security to the marketplace. Roadway Sealed Divider Service is just one example of our efforts to provide personalized solutions, fast responses and flexible service to our customers. We constantly innovate to meet the needs of our customers. It is gratifying to see this particular innovation acknowledged by the granting of a patent.”
Roadway Sealed Divider Service features a numbered rod-lock seal system designed to verify that a shipment travels undisturbed from pickup to delivery. At the time of pickup, a shipment moving under Roadway Sealed Divider Service is isolated in the nose of a trailer by a customized barrier constructed behind it. The barrier is designed to create a protected environment for the shipment and prevents mingling with other shipments on the trailer.
Two numbered rod lock seals secure the barrier, and the seal numbers are recorded on a placard and the freight bill. Once sealed on a Roadway trailer, the shipment is not touched until arrival at its final destination. At delivery, the receiver compares the seal numbers to the numbers on the placard and freight bill, and the matching numbers are intended to verify the shipment traveled undisturbed.
Roadway Sealed Divider Service is designed for products that are difficult or expensive to package for shipping, are of high value, or need verifiable security throughout transit. Companies from a wide range of industries — from pharmaceuticals to furniture to electronics — could benefit from the secure shipping environment Sealed Divider Service provides. Roadway says it is the only transportation provider to use a numbered rod-lock seal system to secure a shipment, and that a customer pays only for the space the shipment occupies within the trailer.
For an online demo of Roadway Sealed Divider Service, go to www.roadway.com/sealed and click on the see-through trailer image in the middle right of the screen.
