RAIN RFID Solution Viewed as Cost-effective, Sustainable And Flexible
BRUSSELS, Belgium and WAKEFIELD, Mass. – April 14, 2021 – The RAIN Alliance launched today a workgroup with the mission of supporting the use of RAIN RFID advanced road charging (electronic toll collection) technology on European roads. The RAIN Alliance European Road Charging Workgroup (EURCWG) will focus on furthering EU legislation to include RAIN RFID as a road charging technology. EURCWG’s founding members include: FEIG Electronic, NXP Semiconductors, STAR Systems International Limited, EM Microelectronic, Zebra Technologies Corporation, Kathrein Solutions GmbH, and TÖNNJES IPH GmbH. To join: https://rainrfid.wpengine.com/members/join/
“RAIN RFID is a core road charging technology that is used for a variety of road charging applications although its use in the EU has been limited compared to other regions,” said Steve Halliday, president, RAIN Alliance. “The EURCWG will encourage and support the EU in advancing the use of RAIN RFID for road charging solutions by engaging with policy makers and stakeholders as well as advocating for a set of best practices for its use.”
The RAIN Alliance is the global industry non-profit organization charged with accelerating UHF RFID technology growth and adoption in business and consumer applications. RAIN RFID technology provides the identification, location, and authentication of the physical item that an RFID tag is attached to.
RAIN RFID costs a fraction of other road charging technologies and since no battery is required for the transponder it is a very environmentally friendly solution and requires less maintenance. The technology’s flexibility allows for its use in a variety of form factors such as license plates, windshield labels, headlamp tags and more.
RAIN RFID is a mature and well-used technology as indicated by the growth trend of RAIN RFID chip use with more than 21 billion chips shipped in 2020 – an increase of more than 2.5 billion units from 2019, despite the economic impact of COVID. Close to a 100 billion chips have been shipped since 2010. This market acceptance includes many verticals similar in nature to road charging, e.g., vehicle access control, freight, logistics and road charging outside of the EU. This acceptance can be attributed to the cost efficient and robust automation benefits RAIN RFID offers.
“Along with road charging, RAIN RFID technology offers a wide range of other applications in the transport and mobility sectors, such as Electronic Vehicle Identification (EVI), parking, logistics, access control into low emission zones and payment. Some EU countries are considering implementing RAIN RFID technology,” said Christian Schnebinger, chair, EURCWG and deputy sales officer, Kathrein Solutions. “A RAIN RFID feasibility study will be published this summer to address a variety of uses of the technology in Europe.”
About the European Road Charging Workgroup
The goal of the EURCWG is to have RAIN RFID approved for use in the EU as a technology for road charging. The EURCWG will create reports and studies, e.g. policy recommendations, feasibility studies, stakeholder communication, and exchange best practices from flagship projects. It will initiate communication about characteristics and benefits of RFID technology with policy makers, authorities, concessionaires, integrators and other involved stakeholders and will advocate for EU legislation to include RFID as a core technology into the EU Directives. EURCWG advisor is Josef Czako from Moving Forward Consulting.
About The RAIN RFID Market
The RAIN RFID Market Research Report is global in scope and was produced in collaboration with VDC Research using information provided by members of the RAIN Alliance. It is available at https://rainrfid.org/rain-rfid-market-research-report/
About the RAIN RFID Alliance
The RAIN Alliance is the industry organization supporting the universal adoption of RAIN UHF RFID technology, a wireless technology that connects billions of everyday items to the Internet-of-Things, enabling businesses and consumers to identify, locate, authenticate, and engage assets.
Download the eBook to learn more about RAIN RFID. Membership in the RAIN Alliance is open to all companies that have an interest in RAIN RFID technology. For more information, visit the RAIN Alliance website or [email protected]