The logistics networks involved in ocean shipping are often complex, involving multiple carriers, ports, and customs agencies across different countries. This complexity makes it difficult to accurately track shipments as they move through different stages of the shipping process. Poor visibility leads to delays, extra fees, and unhappy customers.
Meanwhile, ocean carriers and other parties involved often have different systems and processes for tracking shipments, hindering their ability to share data and provide a comprehensive view of the shipment’s progress.
These webs of handoffs and analogue ways of doing business can create blindspots in your international shipping, robbing you of precious time, dollars, and resources.
The Possible Gaps in Your Ocean Visibility
Data silos and multimodal disconnects
Just because a shipper implements a visibility solution does not mean it will provide the necessary qualities to make it valuable. Some visibility providers only offer tracking for one mode or do not provide connections for the multimodal journey. And with precise inventory management being more important than ever, shippers need to have comprehensive, end-to-end solutions that provide visibility down to the PO and SKU level — granular insight to know exactly what inventory is making it to store shelves on time and what is not, especially for promotions like back-to-school.
Unusable data
Similarly, having more data does not put you in a better position. Digitisation is a journey for most organisations. But once the data is digital, it still might be incomplete, inaccurate, or just plain stale, making it difficult to use in an actionable way. However, once you get the data into a digital format, you can see which sources are better than others and initiate corrective programs to address the root causes.
This process is the foundation for improving carrier performance, supplier performance, and, ultimately, the supply chain network’s performance. Such analysis is critical because as you begin to look deep, you will see interesting anomalies such as Carrier A, who performs well on route one but is the least good on route five. After all, some carriers have more expertise running certain lanes and ports than others. Similarly, forwarders have variability in their performance, which can cause delight or a problem depending on whether your needs match their strengths or weak spots.
That is why your visibility solution needs to offer comprehensive, configurable analytics by provider, region, route, product, division, and more.
Visibility at the port, terminal, and beyond
Terminals are typically a black hole of data for shippers, obfuscating when cargo makes it to the next leg of its journey. Advanced visibility solutions with terminal intelligence can give shippers deeper visibility into global terminals, connecting each leg of the journey for a complete picture of international freight. Some track-and-trace solutions retrieve data from a single source, such as ocean carriers’ websites. This is a fine start, but it will not paint a complete picture. More advanced solutions use many sources of information, including the port terminals directly. With this added visibility, shippers, BCOs, and freight forwarders will reduce dwell, missed transshipment ports and fines, and fees.
Handoffs can also create a black hole of data – which is especially concerning given that these handoffs often are where delays or bottlenecks occur. Since shippers typically use more than one mode to transport goods, an advanced ocean visibility solution that connects each leg of the supply chain journey in a single platform is a must-have – whether you use rail, truckload, or dray. End-to-end multimodal visibility makes it easier to mitigate issues before those problems work their way upstream or downstream in your supply chain.
Final
As supply chains evolve and grow more complex, leveraging advanced technologies and data-driven approaches will be vital in achieving optimal efficiency, agility, and resilience. It can be daunting to know where to start, but embracing the power of ocean shipping data to enhance your supply chain performance will ensure your business remains at the forefront of the industry.
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