A car drives on the lot at a car dealership and immediately that car’s information, history, customer preferences, and almost anything else a dealership desires to see displays on the service manager’s screen. Too good to be true? Well, this is happening today in cities all around the world.

To employ such functionality requires an RFID system where the car in question utilizes an RFID windshield tag as its means of identification. Car dealerships, service stations, car washes, and many vehicle-centric companies can use RFID to drive down wait and service times, which enhances the overall customer experience. Below are a few examples of information that can be displayed when a tag is read on a vehicle:

The car’s make, model, and year.

The car’s mileage at last service.

Purchase information.

Relevant account information about the car such as owner’s name, billing information, and any automated services listed on the account for the vehicle.

Assigned account representative and/or service technician.

The date of the last reported service.

Any problems the car was experiencing at the last reported service.

RFID Antennas positioned to read a vehicle’s UHF tag on arrival (as pictured above) generally have a high gain and read range giving them the ability to read tags at different heights and speeds. An RFID system can be placed just about anywhere on a lot depending on which pieces of information are valuable to the company as well as when the company wishes to capture the information. If customer service is critical to a company, a system can be placed at the entrance to the lot and setup to read the vehicle’s tag upon entrance. Within such a system, the vehicle’s owner can be greeted by name and the vehicle’s information is already located, saving the customer time.

An RFID windshield tag or rearview mirror hang tag are the best options for vehicle customer service-based applications because these tags are tuned to be read through glass and come in convenient form factors for use on vehicles. Similar to the label placed on the windshield inside of a car after an oil change, RFID tags are adhered on the inside of a windshield. Because these tags are almost never removed from the vehicle, it is important to choose a tag that will not hinder everyday driving – windshield tags are small and rearview mirror hand tags can be easily removed.