Mar 5, 2019–project44 announced today the availability of ocean visibility on the project44 Advanced Visibility Platform. Ocean visibility enables shippers, including beneficial cargo owners (BCOs), freight forwarders (FFWs) and third-party logistics firms (3PLs), to track North American-bound container shipments as they arrive in port for shipment, travel across the ocean and are discharged from vessels to be moved onto rail or trucks. Such broad and detailed ocean shipment visibility has previously been unattainable for many shippers, FFWs and 3PLs.
Ocean visibility, combined with project44’s existing modes – truckload (TL), less-than-truckload (LTL), volume less-than-truckload (VLTL), parcel, final-mile, rail and intermodal – offers end-to-end shipment visibility. The addition of Ocean to the project44 Advanced Visibility Platform allows organizations to automate more key transportation processes and unlock a larger set of actionable insights to improve shipping performance.
Most delays to ocean shipments happen in port or directly after, but other visibility solutions only focus on satellite data on a vessel’s location while it is in transit. The project44 Advanced Visibility Platform enables the collection and analysis of a wider range of real-time and historical vessel, container, port, weather and other ocean shipment data. This data allows project44 to deliver predictive insights enabling users to eliminate costs related to demurrage fees as well as reduce inventory stock outs and manual workload. Bringing in data from the entire ecosystem allows project44 to ultimately drive a significant return on investment.
“Until recently, much of the valuable information generated by ocean carriers and shipping terminals has been difficult, if not impossible, to access,” said Jett McCandless, CEO and founder of project44. “Plus, true ocean visibility is multi-modal, encompassing port operations on either end that include truck and rail. By tapping into ocean carriers’ and shipping terminals’ treasure trove of vessel and port data, project44 is helping organizations understand the entire ocean leg of a shipment. This gives them the visibility they need to increase efficiency, lower expenses, and enhance their customers’ experiences.”
Yamato Transport USA, whose parent company, Yamato Holdings, is a world-leading logistics company, was one of the first adopters of project44’s new ocean product. Paul T. Masuda, Chief Strategy & Innovation Office at Yamato Transport USA said, “Our company has been working for years to be at the leading edge of shipping logistics, but before adopting project44’s platform, ETAs on our North American bound container shipments were still only correct approximately 60 percent of the time, and these shipments entered an informational ‘black hole’ when they came into port. This confusion was stressful and costly – for us and our customers.”
“We believe that project44’s ocean visibility product will deliver accurate ETAs as to when our shipments will arrive at U.S. ports. Plus, we will have detailed, real-time data on the location and status of shipping containers as they are discharged, so we know if there is a customs hold that needs attention, when a truck needs to be dispatched and exactly when shipping containers need to be returned to port. Better ETAs and improved container-level visibility at the port will save us and our carriers a lot of time and money, and allow us to provide better service to our customers.”