VietNamNet Bridge – At 5am on December 12 a public transport bus operated by Saigon Star on the Ben Thanh–An Suong route in HCM City began its trip at Ben Thanh.

The Ben Thanh bus stop in HCM City’s District 1. — VNS File Photo

It reached the An Suong Bus Terminal an hour later.

All the data related to its trip was automatically recorded by Saigon Star’s management and operation system through a radio frequency identification (RFID) device installed in the bus.

The HCM City Transportation Management Centre has set up the RFID management and operation system to better manage transport services.

According to Tran Chi Trung, the director of the centre, the use of the RFID technology is meant to replace humans in the management and identification of buses at bus terminals and stops.

He said the technology was piloted at the bus stops at the 23 September Park (in District 1), An Suong (District 12) and the National University in HCM City (District 9).

It is now used on 125 buses operating on four routes.

Experts said the new system would benefit not only transport authorities but also bus operators and passengers.

It helps operators of bus fleets immediately collect information and data about buses’ trips to ensure drivers comply with regulations and schedules.

It helps passengers easily get information about bus trips.

How does it work?

RFID is the use of radio waves to read and capture information stored in a tag attached to an object. A tag can be read from up to several feet away and does not need to be in the line-of-sight of the reader to be tracked. 

A RFID system is made up of two parts: a tag or label and a reader. RFID tags or labels are embedded with a transmitter and a receiver and have a microchip that stores and processes information and an antenna to receive and transmit signals.

To read the information stored in a tag, a two-way radio transmitter-receiver called an interrogator emits a signal to it using an antenna. The tag responds with the information written in its memory bank. The interrogator will then transmit the read results to an RFID computer programme.

Source: VNS