In an age when ports are looking at bringing customers ever closer, the old answer of \u201cwell, your box left us this morning\u201d isn\u2019t quite good enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have a box on a boat, or in a terminal, you know where it is. But once it is outside the gate, it\u2019s gone,\u201d says Brian Shultz of International Asset Systems. So, how do you keep a track when the box is outside your jurisdiction? Especially since 90% of the trucking companies are relatively small operations without a lot of sophistication.<\/p>\n
The evolution of the answer has proved interesting: Mr Shultz points out that one shipping line even went as far as buying a trucking company so that they could keep hold of the strings, although this didn\u2019t prove to be a viable solution long term.<\/p>\n
Another step was a kind of \u2018eBay\u2019 for boxes: companies could sign onto the website and go find a load that would suit their positions for a return journey into the port. However, there wasn\u2019t a huge amount of takeup. \u201cAfter all, it was another process that the trucking companies had to involve themselves with,\u201d says Mr Shultz.<\/p>\n
The answer has been, simply, to give everyone what they want \u2013 especially the trucking companies. While the cargo originators tended to have very sophisticated systems, others did not, so the links had to be able to take their existing processes and draw all this in together.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Working to scale<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cWe worked out a way to give the trucking companies the systems for free,\u201d explained Mr Shulz. The burden of installing the system into the trucking companies is born by IAS, who contract out a service with a small fee for each transaction, which keeps the whole process scaleable, rather than involving parties in a lump investment. \u201cWe can adapt to meet the technology of our clients while keeping costs low \u2013 breaking down barriers to entry rather than creating more hurdles,\u201d adds his colleague, Amanda Hinton.<\/p>\n
This means everyone wins: the trucking company gets a more efficient run by not having to do two separate journeys to and from the port, finding a container that fits their position and brief nearby for the return journey; the customers get to know exactly where their cargo is, and there are no discrepancies on the invoices \u2013 which are generated on receipt; and the ports handle more laden cargo and their gates get freed up from so many empties returning home. Plus, the communities get cleaner air, as unbelievably, one \u2018street turned\u2019 box can save the equivalent emissions of 200 cars commuting for a year.<\/p>\n
And when a company who wants to keep track of its cargo signs up to the system, they nominate a number of trucking companies to link in: however, the system is being used so densely that now two thirds of their contacts are already linked into the system via other parties.<\/p>\n
However, it isn\u2019t just applicable to ports who want to bring their customers\u2019 supply chains closer, it\u2019s also going to be of use in the \u2018dark interior\u2019 of China.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoxes on barges up the Yangtze are actually in just the same position as our boxes on trucks on the US roads,\u201d says Mr Shultz. \u201cYou may laugh, but both have been \u2018in the dark\u2019 for some while.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company has already piloted the program with some of the Pearl River Delta barge operators, and there is a growing feeling that the whole area would benefit from this kind of link up, as the barges don\u2019t move very fast and, although there are better pick up possibilities since the area is developing according to the state\u2019s plan to push into China\u2019s interior, \u201con the whole the barges still don\u2019t communicate very well\u201d, says Mr Shultz.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Off radar<\/b> <\/p>\n
Further, it would add quite a bit to the security: he explains that while thousands of boxes transit rivers like the Yangtze every day, \u201cIf you send 40 boxes up, you might find only 38 come back,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
But the Pearl River Delta operators really like the ease it gives: he points out that the Asian operators, rather like their US counterparts \u201chate the paperwork and would rather upload everything they need \u2013 like most people, they don\u2019t want to be nagged about it\u201d.<\/p>\n
Although there are still some obstacles thrown up in the way of the language, he says, \u201cthe lines are thrilled \u2013 the Chinese interior in its way has similar challenges to the US \u2013 without the technology, it\u2019s still dark and the issues are very much the same\u201d.<\/p>\n
The company may be seeing further developments in the area and Singapore, for example, generates a huge number of truck moves: Mr Shultz explains that the system could even expand to take in inter-Asia trade.<\/p>\n
Bob Heaney of the Aberdeen Group explains this globalisation is to blame for much of our grappling with hydra-like information issues, with more partners and more kinds of data than anyone could have imagined a decade ago.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Knotted up<\/b> <\/p>\n
Ports especially have a challenge as they lie at the knot where many of the chains tie up, giving rise to a lot of different kinds of information, usually in different formats.<\/p>\n
Mr Heaney explains data systems have evolved slowly \u2013 so far. \u201cMostly, companies started initiating visibility tools from inside their own enterprise, just to keep a track of supplies.\u201d But it can be a Frankenstein, with updates and reporting tools spewing out reels of information.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen comes the next challenge, you have so much data you don\u2019t really know what you need to see, what you need to action, and where to stop. There\u2019s always a new frontier, so your ability to handle it means automation. For example, if something is delayed you can get a system to automatically find another route within certain parameters and costs,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
So, it grows… and of course, clients further up the chain ask for more services as they get demands for drop-shipments or direct-to-customer deliveries, which means even more channels to take care of.<\/p>\n
There are a couple of reasons why things can go wrong at this point. One is that \u2018bad\u2019 data gets into an automated system and replicates, which can be as simple as somebody making an estimate that doesn\u2019t get revised, so you need checks built in. Another is that you are inputting a lot of data that won\u2019t pay for its keep: \u201cYou need to be selective\u201d says Mr Heaney.<\/p>\n
And things sometimes fail because there isn\u2019t enough automation, so people miss the critical signals in the tide of data. \u201cYou need to get the right information in the right format to the right people, by email alerts, dashboard or whatever, it doesn\u2019t matter so much how, just that it\u2019s germane to the role,\u201d says Mr Heaney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Keeping control of the container chain has proved tricky in the past, finds Stevie Knight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":8540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-8539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-equipment"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8541,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8539\/revisions\/8541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8539"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=8539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}