RFTrax
Encyclopedia
RFTrax is a wholly owned subsidiary of IONX, an Amsted Rail Company, specializing in mobile asset management
. RFTrax is headquartered with its parent in Sugar Land, TX outside of Houston. The company is a leading supplier of telemetry
asset tracking and protection technologies to the rail industry designing and manufacturing their products in Houston. Their Asset Management Platform or "AMP" provides owners and operators real time data regarding the location, speed, and direction of rail cars using GPS data communicated via the GSM cellular system. Optionally, accelerometer
equipped units report high impact events protecting valuable and hazardous rail cargo. Special locomotive units report vital operating characteristics improving efficiency and safety.
In June 2008, RFTrax introduced the GetiSight GPS product line of inexpensive vehicle tracking devices targeted to consumers and small commercial fleet operators.
, Sugar Land, TX. Fairfield is a privately-owned geophysical company whose owners have interests in containerized shipping and so were quite interested in container security in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. Fairfield named Hal Haygood, its engineering manager, as president of the newly acquired RFTrax, replacing Neff. With Fairfield's money, new sensor development projects and partnerships were initiated with Los Alamos National Laboratory
and various universities for advanced chemical, biological, and radiological sensors. Barrett and Neff continued to lead product development and marketing efforts through the completion of their contracts in April, 2007. By that time, technological challenges and the soft market for homeland security products had led RFTrax to pursue the more lucrative rail market. This move also freed up demands on capital investment since the rail market can be well served with low-cost commodity sensors and requires only engineering without significant research. The early advanced sensor projects and partnerships were mostly abandoned.
During the latter part of 2008, Fairfield reorganized RFTrax. Roger Keyte was appointed as company president, replacing Hal Haygood who has since left the company. John Felty, who had come to RFTrax from Lat-Lon LLC of Sheridan, Colorado in autumn, 2005, was promoted to Vice President. Felty had been instrumental in the transition of RFTrax from the homeland security to the rail asset monitoring market. The company continues to be a competitive supplier of tracking and monitoring devices for locomotives, railcars, fleets, and consumer vehicles. Its principle competitors are Lat-Lon and Skybitz
. Since, of these, Lat-Lon and RFTrax are both privately held, there is limited visibility into each company's relative market share.
Mobile asset management
Mobile asset management is managing availability and serviceability of assets used to move, store, secure, protect and control inventory within the enterprise and along the supply chain or in conjunction with service providing.Mobile assets are e.g...
. RFTrax is headquartered with its parent in Sugar Land, TX outside of Houston. The company is a leading supplier of telemetry
Telemetry
Telemetry is a technology that allows measurements to be made at a distance, usually via radio wave transmission and reception of the information. The word is derived from Greek roots: tele = remote, and metron = measure...
asset tracking and protection technologies to the rail industry designing and manufacturing their products in Houston. Their Asset Management Platform or "AMP" provides owners and operators real time data regarding the location, speed, and direction of rail cars using GPS data communicated via the GSM cellular system. Optionally, accelerometer
Accelerometer
An accelerometer is a device that measures proper acceleration, also called the four-acceleration. This is not necessarily the same as the coordinate acceleration , but is rather the type of acceleration associated with the phenomenon of weight experienced by a test mass that resides in the frame...
equipped units report high impact events protecting valuable and hazardous rail cargo. Special locomotive units report vital operating characteristics improving efficiency and safety.
In June 2008, RFTrax introduced the GetiSight GPS product line of inexpensive vehicle tracking devices targeted to consumers and small commercial fleet operators.
Founding
Based in the Seattle, WA area, RFTrax was founded in 2001 by Fred Barrett and Lynn Neff as a hardware/software technology company focused on Supply Chain visibility and high-value asset management and tracking. Barrett led the company’s technology initiatives, positioning the products for inclusion in US Department of Homeland Security’s “Operation Safe Commerce” container security initiatives, and other international supply chain pilots, while Neff lead sales, marketing and partner alliances. Barrett and Neff co-developed and received a patent for “inter-modal telemetry and monitoring solution” which is now in use by major corporations (U.S. Patent #7135976). Key to the business plan were a series of low-cost, low-power sensors - most notably a unique gama-ray sensor and an optical sensor for use in freight containers.Acquisition by Fairfield Industries
RFTrax was acquired in 2005 by Fairfield IndustriesFairfield Industries
FairfieldNodal is a privately held full service geophysical company with worldwide operations. In 2010, Fairfield Industries was renamed FairfieldNodal, a name that reflects the company’s expertise in nodal technology...
, Sugar Land, TX. Fairfield is a privately-owned geophysical company whose owners have interests in containerized shipping and so were quite interested in container security in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. Fairfield named Hal Haygood, its engineering manager, as president of the newly acquired RFTrax, replacing Neff. With Fairfield's money, new sensor development projects and partnerships were initiated with Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
and various universities for advanced chemical, biological, and radiological sensors. Barrett and Neff continued to lead product development and marketing efforts through the completion of their contracts in April, 2007. By that time, technological challenges and the soft market for homeland security products had led RFTrax to pursue the more lucrative rail market. This move also freed up demands on capital investment since the rail market can be well served with low-cost commodity sensors and requires only engineering without significant research. The early advanced sensor projects and partnerships were mostly abandoned.
During the latter part of 2008, Fairfield reorganized RFTrax. Roger Keyte was appointed as company president, replacing Hal Haygood who has since left the company. John Felty, who had come to RFTrax from Lat-Lon LLC of Sheridan, Colorado in autumn, 2005, was promoted to Vice President. Felty had been instrumental in the transition of RFTrax from the homeland security to the rail asset monitoring market. The company continues to be a competitive supplier of tracking and monitoring devices for locomotives, railcars, fleets, and consumer vehicles. Its principle competitors are Lat-Lon and Skybitz
Skybitz
SkyBitz, based in Sterling, Virginia, is a United States company that offers a trailer tracking service.-Business:Based just outside of Washington, DC, SkyBitz provides products to track unpowered assets such as tractor-trailers, intermodal containers, rail cars, power generators, and heavy...
. Since, of these, Lat-Lon and RFTrax are both privately held, there is limited visibility into each company's relative market share.