The average container shipment has approximately 19 touchpoints in the process of moving from point A to point B. Many of these touchpoints can be automated today via milestone reporting, however, they are reliant on human intervention and oversight due to the insufficient quality of the data that is being produced. This has been a topic for as long as I have been in the business and, so far, there has been no magic bullet solution regarding full automation and, more importantly, the reliability of the information provided.
While aspects of data quality have certainly improved over the years, it is not uncommon for a shipment to receive multiple in-gate or out-gate milestones with various dates from various parties as an example. If I am a customer, then how can I understand which of the milestones are correct, and how should I plan my supply chain against the various and conflicting data elements?
The only way to navigate and overcome the shortcomings of automation is to have a partner that is thoroughly scrubbing the data with an operational eye in order to eliminate errors, while providing proactive real-time updates.