3M/Sirit mount challenge to TransCore supremacy in sticker tags

A joint venture of 3M and Sirit is quietly mounting a major challenge to TransCore's supremacy in sticker tags for tolling and other motor vehicle identification. Since March 2008 3M and Sirit have had what they call a "cooperative marketing agreement" or deal to collaborate worldwide offering RFID reader/tag technology based on open standards - the ISO 18000 6C, a passive 865 - 928 MHz paper-thin transponder that will read and can be written to at full highway speeds. It operates at a range of  8 - 10m (26 to 33ft) and has a 724 bit memory and data transfer rates up to 640kbps - rather similar to the TransCore eGo sticker tag specifications which are based on an earlier generation of the same standard.

3M's Traffic Safety Systems division is marketing the product and will do most of the prime contracting. 3M also provides the flexible plastic sheeting and adhesive packaging and printing.

Sirit provides the chip/antenna assembly that is the working heart of the transponder and the overhead readers with the brandname IDentity 5100.

At the recent ITS Congress Sirit was showing IDentity 5100 tags that come in three forms:

- a windshield toll tag 67mm wide by 25mm high (2.65" by 1")

- a registration sticker tag

- a tag nestling in an indentation in a license plate

The products are not yet on Sirit's or 3Ms websites but they give out flyers.

The technology is designed to work at 866 to 870MHz in Europe and at 902 - 928MHz in the Americas. The chip is a derivative of the product chain tagging technology intended for manufacture by the billions for use on consumer and industrial products in warehouses and retail establishments to replace barcodes. It uses passive backscatter in which the signal from the reader is modulated to respond to a query with data from memory and uses the strength of the incoming signal to send back data, therefore needing no battery or power of its own.

The Sirit relationship with 3M seems to displace an earlier relationship with TransCore in which 3M contracted to supply an island-wide electronic vehicle registration (EVR) system to Bermuda, the British island territory of 65k population on 53km2 (21sq miles) in the Atlantic off the coast of the Carolinas.

The Bermuda transponders are eGo tags and the readers are the Encompass series. The TransCore eGo tags are manufactured to the ISO 18000-6B standard the immediate predecessor to the 6C used by Sirit.

On their tag-reader system TransCore claims patents, while Sirit emphasize theirs are "open standard."

Sirit officials say TransCore's sticker tags are only a minor departure from the open standard of ISO 18000-6B via some modifications to timing.  Antennas may also be engineered slightly differently.

6C chips have economies of larger scale

Sirit say they will be able to undercut TransCore's pricing because 6C chips they use are manufactured in far larger quantities than the 6Bs adopted by TransCore.

The first 3M/Sirit 6C toll transponders have been sold to a systems integrator in Brazil and are already deployed on some tollroads in the Rio area.

A Sirit official says they benefit from a major vehicle test facility owned by 3M and that the toll sticker tag is very thoroughly tested. Testing on registration sticker is underway while work on the license plate tag is at an early stage.

3M is thought to be bidding at North Carolina Turnpike with the Sirit 6C IDentity 5100 equipment, but the company's main focus is in getting states to adopt electronic vehicle registration on the Bermuda model.  If sticker tags were adopted for vehicle registration toll authorities could probably make use of them also to identify vehicles.

TransCore selling more

Meanwhile TransCore steams ahead with sales of their eGo+ sticker tags. They have recently made sales to:

- North Texas Tollway, Dallas TX

- Louisiana DOT for the New Orleans Cresent City Connection bridges

- Kansas Turnpike Authority

- City of Laredo, Texas-Mexico bridges

eGo Plus technology is currently in use by Florida Turnpike Enterprise as an option for its statewide SunPass system, the Texas Department of Transportation’s TxTag, Houston’s Harris County Toll Road Authority’s EZTAG, Washington Department of Transportation’s Good To Go program, Oregon at the Bridge of the Gods toll bridge Columbia River OR-WA, Georgia Tolls on GA400, and Puerto Rico Highway Authority’s AutoExpreso island-wide toll system.

6B sticker tags are also used in the FAST border crossing priority program for secure vehicles on the Mexican and Canadian boders, for customs clearance in China, and for tolling in Jamaica on its Highway 2000.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-12-03