While many terminals, carriers and shippers have looked to technology as an enabler in order to improve their business, significant challenges still persist in the ocean supply chain.
From the continued imbalance of capacity supply and demand to erratic freight rates amid slow economic growth, it will become impossible for the industry to optimally evolve if major stakeholders continue to operate in silos. Instead, more agility and collaboration is needed among global shipping partners in 2017 to overcome persistent hurdles and thrive in the new reality of shipping.
This will require companies to think beyond their individual businesses, shifting away from narrow focuses on the performance of “their terminal” or “their vessel” at any particular point in time to the broader impact on global container flow throughout its journey. In short, companies must be able to better understand, forecast and anticipate their own needs, in parallel with and in relation to the needs of those they work closest with. This is where the collection, analysis and real-time, automated sharing, and transparency of data among shipping partners becomes critical.
Gone are the days when information sharing was summarily dismissed due to security and competitive concerns. The development of cloud technologies, combined with proven success stories of using data in other industries to drive similar improvements (e.g. retail, transportation, entertainment, etc.), have helped shipping entities see the potential for global ocean trade. In speaking with major shipping players recently, many are now willing to share data with their shipping partners. Some are going a step further, actively participating in pilot programs to test the impact of data sharing in their own business environments.
This is an essential step in helping modernize and transform the ocean supply chain through more agile development, valuable data insights sharing, and collaboration to realize a more predictable and profitable container supply chain.