Over 30 years later, railroads figured out a new system to monitor where their vehicles were. All cars and locomotives were required to be tagged with automatic equipment identification (AEI) devices by the end of 1994, which facilitated the automation of railyards.

The computer circuits embedded in the 3x10-inch tags allow them to communicate with trackside readers without the need for squeaky-clean railcars or barcodes. The gadgets are powered by the reader, saving money for railroad owners.

Throughout 49 states, there are more than 140,000 miles of railroad, as reported by the Association of American Railroads (AAR). Transportation monitoring on a national scale might be complicated by this much open area. The 150,000 workers in the rail industry can easily track the location of cars and locomotives thanks to the AEI tags.

What is an AEI System (Automatic Equipment Identification)?
Most railroads employ AEIs, an industry standard for tracking railcar movements, to comply with regulatory obligations. Companies in the railroad industry use this system to manage their customer service and customer interactions and to ensure they adhere to NARTS and FRABS requirements. Locomotives and railroad cars have this programme pre-installed by the manufacturer; it generates a label or identification number that can be seen by an AEI scanner.

You can get these viewers from the developers themselves or from other developers that sell their software online. Each reader is managed by a central computer that is always online and linked to the network. Most of these aei readers feature sizable LCD touch screens with navigation menus that provide multiple avenues for exploring the data they save.

You can customise the look of the screen by choosing which pieces of information to show, for how long, and in what colours. The data can also be shown on a colour LCD, which is ideal for public or home use because of its bright, kid-friendly hues and easy readability on the web. Manufacturers of railcar equipment can purchase AEI readers from software businesses that specialise in the railway industry. Once installed, these readers can be shared throughout multiple railroads.

Don’t Replace, Reprogram:
Reprogramming AEI tags can be a costly and time-consuming process for many companies, but there is currently no other option to meeting AAR regulations save acquiring pre-programmed tags or de-mounting and re-programming tags in-house. The tag market is currently tighter than it has been in the past, making this a great moment to re-program your operation’s AEI tags rather than replace them.

In fact, many repair shops, maintenance operators, and fleet owners overlook the necessity of changing RFID tags on railcars once they have been re-stenciled, despite the fact that this is a crucial procedure. It may take weeks to receive pre-programmed tags, and removing and re-mounting tags may be time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive.

The Reason Why They’re Essential:
If a client needs help tracking down a shipment at any point in transit, the railroad’s traffic or customer service department can use the data collected by the readers. It also facilitates the creation of waybills by doing away with the human error that is common in data entry.

Typically, a railroad’s data-tag readers are integrated with the CLM system, which tracks the whereabouts of individual cars. Customer tracking of multi-rail cargo relies on the railroads’ cooperation with one another in using CLM data. The standardisation of the data-tagging procedure has little to do with the information’s ultimate application.

The AEI system’s reporting standards were co-created by the trucking and maritime industries, therefore intermodal machinery is also supported. Some of the tractors used by J. B. Hunt and Schneider International, two major trucking companies, also feature data tags.

Railroads in North America are pleased with the outcomes of installing AEI data tags on nearly all freight and passenger equipment. Over 1.2 million automobiles and 22,000 locomotives have been tagged, according to the AAR.