Cover Story
Some shippers want visibility from their 3PLs , while others prefer direct relationships with visibility providers . Shutterstock . com he said . “ If you don ’ t have operational experience , it ’ s going to be hard for you to say the data is right 98 % of the time .
“ We ’ re on the hook if 40 containers go into demurrage , so our data has to be on point ,” he added . “ So what we provide to the client has to have that level of redundancy and accuracy .” On the cost issue , by embedding visibility into its freight services , ITS can provide a competitive price on visibility milestones .
“ If I ’ m providing milestone data along with freight , I can give them milestones I already have to feed into their [ business intelligence ] tool for no extra charge ,” Brashier said .
Visibility data as audit tool
Gautam Jain , CEO of global TMS provider GoComet , said there are nuances in the way beneficial cargo owners ( BCOs ) want to consume and manage visibility data .
“ Shippers want 3PLs to manage it , and we see a growing trend to give responsibility to 3PLs , but the shippers want visibility internally ,” Jain said . “ Milestones like proof of delivery , or [ whether ] empty containers returned on time . They want the data analytics that goes with those milestones .
“ Shippers want 3PLs to have the operational responsibility , but they want audit capability so they can check the performance and put it in future contracts ,” he added .
However , some ocean visibility providers disagree that shippers primarily want visibility data channeled through a 3PL .
“ There are small , medium and large [ BCOs ], and the larger you are , the more often you ’ re working with multiple [ 3PLs ],” said Akshay Dodeja , CEO of visibility provider Terminal49 . “ And so , you want to be decoupled from the [ 3PLs ] to have your source of truth .”
Track work
Visibility providers attack persistent gaps in intermodal rail milestones
By Eric Johnson
More than two decades after the container visibility market initially took shape , the industry is still struggling with the data that connects inland modal handoffs , particularly from ocean to rail .
But the most recent crop of providers targeting ocean visibility has taken aim at this specific problem , one that continues to plague importers .
“ A common problem here is that the different modes usually have different identifiers , or units , that they care about ,” said Jake Hoffman , chief technology officer at logistics software vendor Gnosis Freight . “ A really simple way to explain this would be the difference in tracking a bill of lading from an ocean carrier and an individual container on a rail journey .”
On the rail journey , a container is treated like any other rail car , Hoffman said , whereas on an ocean journey , tracking via a bill of lading number gives an importer access to container information , whether it be a single container or more than one . The data-identifier divide between ocean and rail is exacerbated when the units that shippers care about — i . e ., the goods inside the consider — are transloaded into a domestic intermodal container or a 53-foot trailer .
“ Visibility has fallen short in the past because the solutions were oversold and under-delivered .”
“ This is where having the capability to actually track [ stock keeping units ] makes a big difference ,” he said .
Free time urgency
In a March blog , Gnosis , which introduced rail container tracking in 2022 , said the impact of storage fees at rail facilities can be more damaging than those at ocean terminals , with demurrage fees at ocean terminals generally kicking in after at least four days of storage .
“ Rail terminals , on the other hand , provide very limited free time for container pickup , typically 24 or 48 hours ,” the company wrote . “ After that , fees can escalate rapidly , reaching up to $ 500 per day .”
Akshay Dodeja , CEO of visibility provider Terminal49 , said the blind spot is caused by difficulty in accessing data from the Class I rail tracking systems .
“ It ’ s very challenging unless you ’ re a consignee ,” he said . “ Sometimes [ forwarders ] get access to it , and very rarely tracking companies .”
The default provider of rail data has long been Railinc , a subsidiary of the American Association of Railroads ( AAR ) that caters to Class I railroads and non-intermodal shippers . But Dodeja said that data isn ’ t what container-based customers need .
“ Railinc provides you rail car data that you can then transform into pickup data ,” he said . “ You know it has been loaded , but has it been unloaded at a depot ? What ’ s the ETA ? What ’ s the availability ? What ’ s the chassis number ? Are there any holds or fees ? What ’ s the last free day for pickup ?
“ Those pieces of information are not available through Railinc ,” Dodeja added . “ And that ’ s where there ’ s an opportunity . The opportunity is to go straight to the rail carriers and pull out all of that .”
Terminal49 in April unveiled its own rail tracking product , which allows
12 Journal of Commerce | May 6 , 2024 www . joc . com