Wanna know where your container is all the time? Here’s the answer, satellite tracking.
Globe Tracker adds Satellite Functionality for Intermodal Container Market | Shipping Tribune.
There are lots of good reasons to do this, if the cost is reasonable. Of course not all cargo matters.
How about soybeans in containers, for instance? What case can be made for tracking each container? 8% of all export soybeans from the US move in containers.
Well, you might want to know if they had been wet, or tampered with, or whether someone introduced some different beans into the container. Some Asian purchasers want to know that the chain of custody from the very farm to the processor is exactly as specified.*
But soybeans are very cost sensitive, being a commodity, in many ways. The freight cost can sway where the beans are purchased (Brazil or the US) and too large a cost can mean a farmer loses his market and can’t make money on his crop.
Se we will see what the technology costs. I imagine pharmaceuticals might be good to monitor. But they go by air now, don’t they.
*Clott, Christopher B., Bruce Hartman, Elizabeth Ogard, and Althea Gatto.. (2014). “Container Repositioning and Agricultural Commodities: Shipping Soybeans by Container from US Hinterland to Overseas Markets”. Research in Transportation and Business Management. DOI: 10.1016/j.rtbm.2014.10.006.
Supply Chain and Logistics 