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An RFID tag is a small wireless sticker that mounts on a vehicle’s windshield. When that vehicle pulls into your tunnel, the lane’s RFID reader picks up the tag and identifies the vehicle, and its membership, before the license plate camera has a chance. FlexWash supports RFID tags as a per-vehicle identifier. Assign one tag to one vehicle, and that vehicle gets recognized the moment it enters the lane.

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Why use RFID Tags?

License Plate Recognition (LPR) is fast, but it has limits. Plates get dirty, weather obscures them, and some vehicle designs reflect or block the camera’s view. RFID picks up where the camera leaves off.

Faster recognition

RFID reads complete before the camera finishes processing the plate, so members move through your lane sooner.

Higher confidence

An RFID read is treated as a perfect match and overrides camera reads when the two conflict.

Works when LPR doesn't

Dirty, snow-covered, or obscured plates that fail the camera still resolve cleanly via RFID.

Opens the gate automatically

At unattended lanes, an RFID-identified active member triggers the gate to open without waiting on the camera.
RFID is layered on top of LPR, not a replacement for it. If a vehicle has no tag, the camera still handles recognition normally.

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Assigning a Tag

You can assign or update a vehicle’s RFID tag from two places: the CRM customer detail page, or the Pay Tablet.

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From the CRM

1

Open the customer's profile

Search for the customer in the CRM and open their profile.
2

Locate the Vehicles section

Scroll to the Vehicles card. The RFID Tag column shows each vehicle’s current tag, or blank if none is set. Click the pencil icon on the row you want to edit.
RFID Tag column on the Vehicles card
3

Enter the tag

In the Update Vehicle modal, type or paste the tag value into the RFID Tag field, then click Continue.
RFID Tag field in the Update Vehicle modal
4

Confirm and submit

Add an optional reason for the change on the confirmation step, then submit. The new tag takes effect immediately.

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From the Pay Tablet

1

Open the customer's profile

From the Pay Tablet, search for the customer and open their profile. The Vehicles tab lists each vehicle on the account.
Vehicles tab on the Pay Tablet customer details page
2

Edit the vehicle

Tap the pencil icon on the vehicle you want to update.
3

Enter the tag and update

Enter the tag value in the RFID Tag field of the Edit Vehicle modal, then tap Update.
RFID Tag field in the Edit Vehicle modal on the Pay Tablet

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Format and Uniqueness

  • Free-form text. Enter the tag exactly as it is printed on the sticker. There is no required length, prefix, or character set.
  • Uppercased automatically. Stored tags are always uppercase. You can enter mixed case and the system normalizes it on save.
  • Unique within your organization. A tag can only be assigned to one vehicle in your organization. Attempting to reuse a tag that is already in use returns a Duplicate RFID Tag error.

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Audit Trail

Every RFID tag change is captured automatically on the customer’s Comments timeline. Entries record what changed, who changed it, and the reason if one was provided. Use the Comments tab to verify what was changed and by whom.

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Finding a Customer by RFID

You can find a customer by RFID tag from the customer search page. Enter the tag value, or any portion of it, in the search bar. Tag matches are case-insensitive and partial, so you do not need to format the input.

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Read Limitations

RFID is reliable, but a small number of vehicles have windshields or hardware that can interfere with the radio signal.

Vehicle limitations

See the list of vehicle types whose windshield coatings or hardware can block RFID and LPR reads.

Reader troubleshooting

For RFID reader hardware checks, including power, cabling, and network connectivity.