History of Maersk Line
Maersk Line is the world’s largest container shipping company, known for reliable, flexible, and eco-efficient services since 1928. Today, with a fleet of 639 ships that sail every major trade lane in the world, they provide end-to-end transport solutions to every corner of the globe. The leader in sustainable shipping already offers the lowest Co2 shipping in the industry and is committed to reducing Co2 emissions by 60% by 2020.
Around 12 million containers shipped every year to 343 ports around the world, to meet the growth in market demands and strengthen the global supply chain, it was crucial to change the existing shipping culture and leverage technology.
Technical Initiative by Maersk Line
With billions of euro worth of goods shipped daily, it is no surprise that their highest priority was to make sure the containers, especially the refrigerated ones, are safe and working with maximum efficiency.
To achieve this Maersk Line came up with a Remote Container Management (RCM) system that uses the Internet of things (IoT) to keep a track of containers. The platform consists of three different components including a GSM antenna, a 3G SIM card specially designed to work in extreme conditions, and a GPS unit to track its position at any given time.
The Integration of completely new RCM technology was not an easy task, it took them 3 years to install the system on all the cargos.
While most of the containers shipped electronics goods and accessories around the world, there was approximately 3 lakhs refrigerated containers, also known as ‘reefers’, that contained food and needed to be kept frozen or chilled at all times.
Apart from keeping track, Remote Container Management gives control of the reefer directly in the customer’s hands. It allows the customer to monitor and control the temperature of the cargo as it moves!
We are aware of how the rough and extreme weather conditions affect the cargo. With boxes going from one of the coldest places on the planet, such as Alaska to some of the hottest ones in Latin America, the effect of weather on the reefer can be severe. For example, extremely rough weather could severely damage a reefer’s power supply, therefore preventing food from being refrigerated.
RCM technology would connect each of its reefer containers to IoT, which was capable to provide accurate data about the conditions of the cargo and alarm the control team when the container needed maintenance.
Not just for preventing damage, with RCM, real-time control can be given directly to the customers who can take charge of their goods while the cargo is moving. This has helped in improving transparency, safety, cost efficiency and providing better service to the customers.
Benefits of Remote Container Management(RCM)
Maersk’s digitization efforts offer significant cost –saving opportunities which are vital for the long-term domination of the company in the market.
Integration of RCM has helped Maersk significantly raise the total value proposition of refrigerated container trade and enhance its service by delivering real-time data to customers at relatively low cost.
Thanks to RCM, freshly produced goods that need to be shipped in a tight range of temperature and humidity can now be shipped with minimal damages.
Furthermore, the shipping company has allotted dedicated teams that constantly monitors the reefers, once a fault is found, the team informs the ship’s crew who began working in getting the reefer back online. This gives full visibility into container conditions which, in turn, helps the company to reduce the cost and time spent on container inspection upon arrival.
Data from RCM provides a guarantee that the goods in the reefers have been kept in good condition during the shipping process and has decreased the inspection time and cost by 60%. Lastly, RCM data gives us detailed insights into how extreme weather conditions affect the shipping process which can be used to design more such adaptable equipment to minimize the loss of goods.
Despite the IoT platform being successfully installed the company is still working on improving their efficiency through technology. And, we at Freightify, are proud to be associated with such a large and technologically driven shipping line.