When it comes to real-time visibility, the market is becoming more important and more robust and saturated than ever before.
Billions of venture capital dollars of investment are being poured into companies that can integrate real-time visibility data with transportation to provide a more informed ETA for shippers and carriers, says an article published on Forbes website.
Real-Time Visibility
Visibility solutions are playing a larger role in the market, as real-time tracking of assets becomes more important. Suppliers of visibility solutions continue to bring in additional data streams for better estimated time of arrival (ETA).
Real-time visibility tools are often thought of as an over-the-road technology. In this case, the visibility is based on integration to truck carriers’ systems. The carriers in turn are tracking the ELD devices on their trucks or by a downloadable app that the driver puts on his smart phone.
Companies are partnering with data aggregators to get a better idea of when shipments will arrive. This includes port data, social media, news, event and weather (SNEW) data, traffic data, and other available sources to provide an accurate ETA to warehouses, stores, and end consumers.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is driving interest in the market. For a truer ETA, companies are using IoT data from trucks to get a better understanding of driver behavior, such as typical driving speeds and times, as well as how they operate in heavily congested areas.
Transportation visibility is clearly not only for trucks. However, the nuances and granularity of the data will vary depending on the mode. Ocean ETAs, for example, are much different because the factors are different than over the road.
These include currents and wind speeds, which play a major role in the overall transit times. The majority of ocean shipments go through trans-shipments, or stopovers, meaning that the journey is more than just port to port. The route can easily change based on a variety of factors.
The Importance of Ocean Visibility
For ocean cargo, however, if a shipment gets bumped to the next ship, it can add up to 15 days to the transit time. For ocean cargo, there are multiple sources feeding into ETAs, including the initial Captains ETA as well as ASI data from ship transponders.
Ocean visibility algorithms take into account a variety of factors including berthing times, when the container will offload, when it will clear customs, and when it will get to the next part of transport and to a DC into the overall ETA. These factors make ocean ETAs more complex and less accurate, when compared to over-the-road.
FourKites, the global leader in real-time supply chain visibility, recently launched its Dynamic OceanSM platform for visibility, rate and documentation management.
FourKites is the only platform that offers door-to-door precision tracking — spanning port, yard, rail and multimodal coverage — together with highly accurate predictive ETAs and collaborative workflow and document management features.
To that end, FourKites also has an extremely robust yard management solution — Dynamic Yard — that provides real-time insights across your yard, including trailer inventory, SKU-level visibility, and flexible and configurable custom yard zones, in addition to unprecedented levels of collaboration. .
End-to-end visibility with Dynamic Ocean
Unlike other visibility platforms, Dynamic Ocean offers comprehensive multimodal visibility for each leg of the journey, alongside rate and booking management, and document management/visibility.
End-to-end visibility with Dynamic Ocean hits upon seven different stages throughout a shipment’s journey:
Shipment at origin– This stage includes emptying the truck upon arrival, and then loading it with the next shipment. The load is tracked through departure with an ETA to the final delivery. This initial ETA is important for understanding when the shipment will arrive at and move through a port.
In-Transit to Port– During transit on the ocean, this stage uses technology to track the real-time position of the container and give a more appropriate ETA.
Port of Loading- This leg takes into consideration any event involving the vessel, its schedule, and events. Additionally, it looks at the ETA of the different legs of the journey, and any exception and alerts that arise during transit.
Ocean In-Transit– This stage uses technology to track the latest position of the vessel in real-time, and adjust its ETA accordingly, depending on a variety of scenarios.
Port of Discharge- Port of discharge looks at other vessel, container, and port events, and how they can impact the overall timing of the shipment.
In-Transit to Destination– This stage integrates over-the-road with ocean or rail tracking to give real-time updates on the container’s location and update the ETA to the most accurate time frame possible.
Final Destination- The final stage monitors ETAs and delays on the network, tracks actual arrival times and records the proof-of-deliveries.
Final Thoughts
There are a number of technologies that are enhancing transportation visibility systems. The Internet of Things (IoT) is driving interest in the market. For a truer ETA, companies are using IoT to use sensor data from containers to know when and where a shipment will arrive.
Machine learning is also important in transportation visibility systems. Real-time visibility solutions leverage machine learning to learn more about constraints (such as capacity, regulations, and hours of service) and then use that information to give a much more accurate ETA for shipments to warehouses, stores, and end customers.
In the end, understanding the ocean leg of the journey is perhaps the most important aspect for trans-continental shipments.
FourKites’ recently released Dynamic Ocean solution can help to make the ocean less of an unknown when it comes to global shipping.
Summary
- When it comes to real-time visibility, the market is becoming more important and more robust and saturated than ever before.
- Visibility solutions are playing a larger role in the market, as real-time tracking of assets becomes more important.
- For ocean cargo, however, if a shipment gets bumped to the next ship, it can add up to 15 days to the transit time.
- FourKites’ recently released Dynamic Ocean solution can help to make the ocean less of an unknown when it comes to global shipping.
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Source: Forbes
