UPS announced the deployment of a new type of “wearable” scanning system for employees designed to accelerate the loading of packages into vehicles and the delivery of visibility information to customers.
The new device made by Motorola Solutions consists of a hands-free imager that is worn on a finger and a small terminal worn on the employee’s wrist or hip. The ring imager automatically scans based on label-sensing technology, allowing UPS employees to image barcodes more quickly compared to the current “point and shoot” method with existing equipment.
UPS says the improved technology enables it to accelerate the transfer of package tracking data to customers and improves package travel reliability through the system. Internally referred to as “link and load,” the scans are key to providing the tracking data that feeds the 32.1 million tracking requests viewed daily on ups.com.
With the new equipment, the ring scanner sends each package’s tracking information via Bluetooth to the terminal worn on the wrist or hip. The data is transmitted over Wi-Fi to the UPS facility network and ultimately to UPS’s global data centers to be stored and processed to be accessed by customers.
“UPS is always examining new ways to improve our delivery reliability and provide timely and accurate shipment information to our customers,” said Juan Perez, UPS vice president of information services. “Effectively deploying mobile and pervasive computing technologies like this allows us to achieve those goals with higher performance and a more rugged longer-lasting piece of hardware.”
