Vanguard expands bar code technology

Vanguard expands bar code technology    Vanguard Logistics Services (VLS), a Carson, Calif.-based neutral non-vessel-operating common carrier, said its in-house software now offers a bar code labeling technology that furthers the efficient handling of cargo throughout its global warehouses.
   The company's globally standardized operating platform, Directions, allows Vanguard to offer a single database for end-to-end freight tracking services.
   Bar code technology was first implemented throughout the NVO's U.S. export warehouses a number of years ago, allowing those facilities to eliminate the majority of data errors caused by multiple points of manual data entry. Vanguard's bar coding is now being rolled out worldwide.
   'The success of this technology in our USA export facilities drove us to extend this to our other global locations,' said Charles Brennan, Vanguard's chief executive officer, in a statement. 'It is another example of how we are leveraging our own office network and investment in our facilities into better end to end visibility for our customers.”
   Vanguard's New York container freight station will be the first import beneficiary of the new bar coding system. 'While the wireless scanning technology has been used in Vanguard warehouses for years on our exports, the addition of bar coding and scanning in our Import CFS is another leap ahead,' said Joe Rodriguez, the NVO's terminal manager in New York.
   The company said its freight forwarder customers will now have greater visibility into their inbound shipments at every 'touch point,' including cargo moving within Vanguard's bonded IPI (interior point intermodal) network. In addition to reducing the time it takes for customers to pick-up their cargo, the bar coding and scanning of all import cargo is also expected to tighten supply chain security, the NVO said.
   The bar code technology expansion rollout will progress through early 2011. ' Chris Gillis