Cargo tracking company project44 has extend its platform to add new ocean visibility capabilities that will allow users to track North American-bound container shipments as they arrive in port for shipment, travel across the ocean and are discharged from vessels to be moved onto rail or trucks.
Visibility of the sea-based component of the transport chain has been added to the company’s existing tracking systems, already covering trucking, rail and intermodal methods, to provide a more detailed dataset to support automation of transportation processes.
The platform collects a range of real-time and historical vessel, container, port, weather and other ocean shipment data, used to deliver predictive insights to improve efficiency in the transport of cargo.
The company told SMN that those data sources include satellite tracking and AIS data, and reporting of key milestones as containers move through the terminal, such as: Container Discharge, Location in Terminal, Last Free Day, Container Hold, and Demurrage. The platform normalises these datasets and applies analytics to provide actionable information to the end user.
“Until recently, much of the valuable information generated by ocean carriers and shipping terminals has been difficult, if not impossible, to access,” said Jett McCandless, CEO and founder of project44.
“Plus, true ocean visibility is multi-modal, encompassing port operations on either end that include truck and rail. By tapping into ocean carriers’ and shipping terminals’ treasure trove of vessel and port data, project44 is helping organisations understand the entire ocean leg of a shipment.”
“This gives them the visibility they need to increase efficiency, lower expenses, and enhance their customers’ experiences.”
Yamato Transport USA was one of the first adopters of project44’s new ocean product. Paul T. Masuda, Chief Strategy & Innovation Office at Yamato Transport USA, commented, “Our company has been working for years to be at the leading edge of shipping logistics, but before adopting project44’s platform, ETAs on our North American bound container shipments were still only correct approximately 60% of the time, and these shipments entered an informational ‘black hole’ when they came into port. This confusion was stressful and costly – for us and our customers.”
“We believe that project44’s ocean visibility product will deliver accurate ETAs as to when our shipments will arrive at US ports. Plus, we will have detailed, real-time data on the location and status of shipping containers as they are discharged, so we know if there is a customs hold that needs attention, when a truck needs to be dispatched and exactly when shipping containers need to be returned to port.”
“Better ETAs and improved container-level visibility at the port will save us and our carriers a lot of time and money, and allow us to provide better service to our customers.”
