Cogoport Powers Container Tracking

Container tracking is a very important aspect of international trade which continues to give jitters to all, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Information on cargo volumes is vital to optimize logistics, predict congestion at ports and container terminals, which will enable shipping lines to take a call on the best possible time and trade route. Amid this backdrop, learn how Cogoport, an Indian technology startup, can make life easy for traders and SMEs in their international trade journey by offering ocean shipment visibility platform with best-in-class attributes and features.

Cogoport Shipment Tracking Platform

Unlike large corporates bestowed with financial muscle, SMEs have their own limitations, where Cogoport, a technology startup makes it easy for SMEs to track their shipments and lends a helping hand in growing their business internationally. With half a decade experience and counting more than 5 lakh containers shipped to 149 countries, Cogoport envisages to globalize Indian SMEs, accelerate their business, and use technology to provide better shipping services with solutions such as:

·    Shipment Tracking

·    Updates in Inbox

·    Event Alerts

·    Expected Time of Arrival (To be launched soon)

Issues Faced With Shipment Tracking

Many exporters and importers are clueless as to what is the current status of their shipment? Is the container on the truck, if it is on the truck, where is the truck? How many states did the export consignment cross in a day? How far is the container terminal? How much more time to reach the port? How to track containers from your warehouse till they reach your client?

Most existing shipping lines in the world are yet to embrace common identical protocols for container tracking, leading to data flow gaps, and indecisiveness across the whole supply chain. Even the few shipping lines which embraced digitalization do not have all the processes in uniformity. One shipping line may say vessel departed while another may say vessel on board for the same event, adding to existing confusion. Similarly, every container traverses through many countries and continents from its home base, with so many data lags in its movement.

It is also a known fact that there no guarantee all the time that all the shipping containers booked by an exporter are stacked on the same shipping line as hedging is incorporated while booking space on shipping lines which leads containers to get scattered on different ocean carriers, further complicating their tracking. No wonder, digitalization and standardization of procedures and protocols could emerge as the next big thing to happen to the shipping industry after Malcolm McLean’s container innovation.

How Cogoport Powers Shipment Tracking?

Cogoport puts an end to international traders’ anxiety by enabling them to track consignments from the time they depart their factory till the time they reach the destination. It is actively collaborating with the shipping lines which have embraced digitalization and those which did not to tap into their data as well as scour the internet for relevant data to merge them together and run data simulations to derive actionable insights for exporters and importers.

Container tracking across 30 shipping lines

Cogoport tracks containers on sea and land, containers stacked on major shipping lines such as Maersk, Hapag– Lloyd, CMA CGM, Zim, OOCL, MSC, Cosco, Evergreen and 15 others. As part of container tracking service, Cogoport has partnered with 30 shipping lines to tap as many as 86 ocean schedules. It takes seven minutes to track a container but Cogoport relays these results in real-time to customers. Powered by Cogoport, exporters and importers can track all their shipments at one place, including obtaining actionable analytics on all shipments to prioritize the best next action to focus more on what is needed the most.

Cogoport tracking service is standardized across all major carriers and includes inland haulage in India. This facility is available for 70% of the containers shipped through Cogoport as of now. Similarly, users can obtain time insights on containers in the event of long waiting periods at the port of origin. This enables users to offer crucial inputs in the ensuing next course of action during the shipment process as it helps in reducing the resultant demurrage and port charges.

Updates in inbox

Cogoport enables exporters and importers to receive updates right in their inbox, freeing them from the need to proactively check the status of each shipment. Users can set up "Status reports" for his shipment created through trackers by adding point of contact (POC) to whom he wishes to send status reports to. User can choose the shipments to include in status report for each POC and the frequency at which he/she wishes to receive those status reports - Weekly or daily, including the time of the day. Details included in the status report email (For every shipment) - current tracking event, upcoming tracking event, location, and time – inform the user whether the shipment is going according to schedule or deviating from it.

Alerts for important events

Users can also setup alerts for their important events, based on the milestones that are provided in tracking data. For each such set up, alerts that will be triggered when the event occurs. The alerts can be sent through multiple modes: to the platform, as a web notification and or through email. Three different alerts exist:

1. Regular alert, when the event just occurs as planned, i.e. happy alert

2. A deviation alert due to unforeseen delays that lead to deviation from original shipment schedule.

3. User can also enter Detention and Demurrage free days to configure alerts for free days ending. This will trigger a new kind of Alert - Risk of Deviation alert - sent just before the detention or demurrage free days are ending, to intimate customer that Detention / Demurred charges would be incurred afterwards.

Expected Time of Arrival (Launching Soon)

As part of a forthcoming feature, Cogoport aims to minimize delays and unexpected costs through predictive ETA, carrier cutoffs and deadlines, data on port congestion, and more to empower exporters and importers to foresee avoidable hindrances, including re-routing options to manage unavoidable exceptions.

To learn more about how Chinese data laws are stinging container tracking efforts and to understand the current state of shipment tracking in the industry.

To read the user manual of Cogoport Shipment Tracking Platform, read our next blog.

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