Abstract: Through the establishment of new inventory models, a study is conducted on the influence of radio radio frequency identification RFID application on the returnable container management. Firstly, a brief overview of the use of RFID systems and related works on container management is presented. Secondly, a model based on analysis is proposed. Then the profitability of a RFID-based container tracking system is assessed. Application of RFID container tracking system can reduce new container purchase, thus obtaining the optimal inventory. A numerical example confirms the necessity of using RFID container tracking system.