This guide covers the following steps:
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Selecting a compatible NFC sticker or tag
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Creating your unique NFC sticker or tag IDs
- Encoding your NFC stickers or tags
Note: This article is intended for customers who are encoding their own NFC stickers/tags. If you purchased the NFC stickers/tags from Rand McNally they will already be encoded and available in your Rand Platform account to begin installing. You can skip ahead to the instructions for installing your NFC Tags.
Step 1: Selecting the Right NFC Sticker or Tag
Before purchasing or configuring your NFC Stickers or Tags, ensure they meet the following minimum specifications:
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Total Capacity: 180 bytes or higher
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Memory: 144 bytes or higher
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URL Length: 132 characters or higher
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Text Length: 130 characters or higher
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Data Retention: 10 years
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Read/Write Cycles: 100,000
These specifications ensure your stickers/tags will be compatible with the Rand Platform and reliable in the field.
Step 2: Create your unique NFC Sticker/Tag IDs
We recommend that you generate your unique IDs and store them in an Excel spreadsheet ready for writing them to your NFC stickers/tags. You will also need to share this list of IDs with Rand McNally support to provision the NFC sticker/tags into your Rand Platform account before you begin installing them.
Each NFC sticker/tag MUST have a unique ID.
IDs should be 8 characters long and alphanumeric (letters and numbers only).
Your ID should be formatted in lowercase. Dash (-) is a supported separator. Comma spacing is not supported. Acceptable format example: “nfc1234-189” or “nfc1234189”
We recommend that you prefix each unique ID with “nfc” for ease of identification in the Rand Platform. Example ID: “nfc786098”.
The ID will identify the NFC sticker/tag association with the vehicle or asset which it is installed into within Rand Platform.
Step 3: Share Unique IDs with Rand McNally Support
Once you have generated your unique IDs, you must share them with Rand McNally support, so that they can be added to your Rand Platform account as devices. This must be completed before you begin installing the NFC stickers/tags to your vehicles.
Submit your NFC unique ID list (preferable in an Excel or CSV file) via email to [email protected] with the Subject line: Provision NFC stickers/tags to my Rand Platform account.
Step 4: Encoding your NFC Stickers or Tags
To encode your NFC Sticker/Tag, follow the steps below:
Download the NFC Tools App:
You’ll need the free NFC Tools app, available on both Android and iOS:
Write the Tag URL:
Once you have your unique IDs you will write them to your NFC stickers/tags as a new URL record with the following URL format (replace the example ID with your unique ID): https://nfc.randmcnally.com?id=nfcXXXX
Write to NFC sticker/tag video guide:
For a step-by-step visual guide on writing your URL to your NFC stickers/tags, watch our video guide.
Once you have writen to all of your NFC sticker/tags and have received confirmation from Rand McNally support that they have been added to your Rand Platform account, you can begin installing the NFC stickers/tags to your vehicles.
Follow our instructions for installing your NFC Tags.