Bar Code Reading & Hand Held Terminals
Bar coded labels are used on shipments and documentation to facilitate cargo handling as this allows the use of hand held scanners or other bar code readers to easily identify the shipment. When used in conjunction with a cargo handling application which is enabled to identify bar codes, operations such as check-in, goods reception, flight build etc. will be accomplished more quickly and accurately.
Bar coded labels may already be present on the shipments when delivered to the transit shed. Alternatively, they may be generated from the ABS2020 application.
The ABS2020 system has been modified to enable hand held scanners or other bar code readers to display data from the database and accept inputs for certain key functions.
Scanners running the ABS2020 system provide a hand held terminal facility that is able to access a number of ABS2020 functions such as Package Check-in. The ABS2020 functions are accomplished by scanning bar codes on shipment labels, ULD tags or shed storage locations rather than by manually inputting the information. The use of keypad input, whilst possible is kept to a minimum.
The scanners in use are a Symbol portable hand held scanner that is supported as a VT220 dumb terminal having a screen width and height of 21 characters by 16 rows. Pressing the trigger operates the scanning facility and this scans the bar code and converts it into alphanumeric characters that are displayed in the current item of the Oracle form. The scanner keypad can be used to enter numbers and other keys are available such an Enter key, arrow keys and function keys F1 to F10.