Data-related issues for port industry

Speaking exclusively to Port Strategy, Mr Schneider — who is the vice president and general manager for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region at the Cargotec division — said that “with all these different systems, getting the data out is just too tough”.

Discussing data-sharing, Mr Schneider said: “The industry is so siloed, there’s no one common set of data, and without that, you really can’t share visibility across the supply chain at all.”

Regarding a lack of leadership for more data-sharing and collaboration, he said: “We need someone big in the industry to take the lead and drive this change — otherwise, it’ll be all these siloed systems and we won’t have one industry solution.

Mr Schneider pointed to a key discovery from Navis’ recent Working As One study that 97% of those surveyed believe that a common data source is crucial for the ports and terminals industry to move forward. The biggest challenges thrown up by the survey were that data standards do not exist, and that nobody wishes to share data, he added.

Mr Schneider argued that shipping lines, together with port authorities and terminals, need to be in the driving seat and push for change on data-sharing and collaboration.

While no group currently exists to drive either standards or collaboration across the port and terminal sector, Mr Schneider said he was encouraged by the fact that “so many groups [are] looking at collaboration. We are starting to see data from proof of concepts proving that it really does drive better efficiencies.”