Alberta wildfire evacuation highlights growing use of tracking workers using RFID

CALGARY — When last year’s ferocious Alberta wildfire threatened Suncor Energy’s oilsands upgrader near Fort McMurray, the rush to safely remove hundreds from the area provided a rare large-scale test of technology that can let companies know the location of every single worker. The evacuation highlighted how radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology — long used to track products in warehouses, equipment in mines and even cattle in feedlots — is increasingly being used to monitor workers on big Canadian industrial sites. -- More...