1. A CMA-CGM ship can stop at four ports in China, loading 8,200 containers, before making
the California
coast in 19 days. CMA-CGM has teamed up with IBM to develop,software that can distribute containers more efficiently so that containers stacked on deck do not slide off during the ocean crossing and thereby waste hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel. Further, with the help of the software containers can be appropriately loaded so that the containers that need to be unloaded at the first port in U.S. are not buried on the bottom of the ship, thereby enabling on-time arrivals. A late arrival in Shanghai, for
example, can make a ship miss the high tide on the Yangtze
River and lead to a 12-hour delay.
2. Fruit companies such as Dole Food Co. and Chiquita
Brands International Inc. harvest bananas when green and load them on ships in Fort-de-France, Martinique.
During the seven-day crossing aboard a CMA-CGM ship to Le
Havre, in northern France,
they are stored at a specific temperature, so they emerge yellow and ready for
sale in Europe. CMA-CGM now has in place technology that lets clients request
changes in a container's temperature during the trip.
3. Maersk spent years developing a system of alerts that notify
customers when anything from bad weather to port backups delays shipments. IMaersk is also working on another feature that would let customers
use a Web site to choose the itinerary and mode of transport by which their
goods will move. A shipper could choose from several itineraries,
prices and trip lengths, using Maersk for the seaborne portion of the trip and
selecting from railroads and trucking companies with which Maersk is affiliated
for the land portions.
Source: Abboud, Leila. 2007. Global shippers play catch-up in information age. Wall Street Journal, 4 January, 2007.