CMA CGM and Maersk Line are continuing to invest in tracking technologies that enable shippers to collect vital details about their cargo in-transit
CMA CGM and Maersk Line are continuing to invest in tracking technologies that enable shippers to collect vital details about their cargo in-transit. The market for sensor technology to track international freight has been growing as shippers seek more accurate and real-time information than has generally been generated by visibility solutions reliant upon electronic data interchange (EDI) status messages or other indirect means.
The problem is that sensor technology has been expensive to deploy, both in terms of the cost of the devices as well as the challenge in returning to their owners' devices that aren't permanently affixed to containers or other assets, IHS Media reported.
Other roadblocks include length of battery life, breakdowns in communications between the sensors and the networks that relay their information to data repositories, and a lack of clarity about whether ocean carriers, shippers or logistics companies will pay for the sensors.
CMA CGM said it has made the Traxens Technology platform available to all customers. Traxens is a French startup that makes container sensors and has developed an associated data platform to give shippers information about the container's location, outside temperature, impacts, movement and vibration.
The French carrier said that pilot tests confirmed that the sensors and associated data platform were commercially viable on a broader scale. Data collected by the permanently installed sensors, called TRAXENS-BOX S+, is relayed to a radio network, called TRAXENS-NET. The radio network is designed to reach boxes deep in the holds of the world's largest containerships.
The sensors currently also detect when a container door has been opened and will soon be able to detect the temperature and humidity levels inside the container, CMA CGM said.
While CMA CGM has been eager to promote its development and usage of Traxens, Maersk has also signaled that it is keen to advance in the same market with an investment in a US-based startup called SensorTransport.
The startup offers inexpensive, disposable tracking devices meant to be affixed directly to goods (at the package or pallet level) and designed to monitor motion, humidity, temperature, light, magnetism and sound. The data generated by the sensors is viewable by a mobile app, the data collected by a relay network known in tech circles as a 'disconnected client'.
