Since shipping the first container with the SS Fairland to Rotterdam, transportation via sea has increased massively. Nowadays, up to 80% of all goods that are transported, are transported via waterways. And of this amount, approximately 60% is shipped in containers, with a total value of 14 trillion dollars. Therefore, it is important for you as a logistics service provider to hold grip on all these container movements. But, with 25 million containers worldwide, which all take different routes, that is easier said than done.
Often, monitoring the container status is done via the web portal of the shipping company. However, this information is often far from up-to-date. Especially when it comes to predictions of the expected time of arrival. Furthermore, you must work with many different portals, which makes it hard to get one clear overview of the needed information. Like you, we at Solution PL thought: that could be easier.
Integrate with Ocean Insights
Via the integration platform DataHub, Solution PL has realized an integration between Ocean Insights and 3PL Dynamics. Ocean insights is a party that provides valuable information about containers via an easily approachable API. By using smart algorithms and automatically gathering data of most shipping companies in the world, a clear overview is created of:
- The current status and location of a container
- The previous route and time-line of a container
- The expected route, transportation method, and coherent expected time-line of a container
Per container, you can ‘subscribe’ based on the container number, document number, or posting number (of the shipping company). After that, all movements of that container are automatically communicated. Also, when there are changes in the (expected) routes or timelines, this information is real-time available. In other words, in this way, you have an easy way to follow your containers overseas.
Real-Time The Correct Information In Your Logistic Solution
Besides providing a real-time overview, the integration with Ocean Insights automatically processes the data into your system. On the ocean freight import or export dossiers in your 3PL Dynamics solution, the information is filled on the section lines. These section lines are changed automatically with the correct date/time fields after each update. And, when a section is added or removed, this is automatically processed as well. Among others, the following data is automatically processed per section:
- Name vessel
- Port of departure
- Expected departure date vessel
- Actual departure date vessel
- Expected date of arrival vessel
- Actual date of arrival vessel
- Expected date/time to unload container
- Actual date/time to unload container
- Port of arrival
Benefit From Existing Integrations In No-Time
With Solution PL’ DataHub, you can use a wide range of existing integrations, created for the logistics industry. The integration with Ocean Insights is one of them. Do you want to integrate with Ocean Insights immediately? Or do you want to communicate in a different way with your customer, supplier, or another party? Mail to info@solutionpl.com and start right away.
This article was written by David Vis from our partner Boltrics
