Container shipments- What are the 5 Challenges?
The global logistics and container shipping industry are mammoth, and keeping them in a smooth motion and overcoming obstacles is quite a challenge. While most of the world’s cargo continues to get shipped in containers, container shipments face their own set of problems too.
As a shipper, one of the best ways you can minimise risks when shipping your goods in containers is to track your shipment’s movement closely. The key to avoiding unpleasant surprises is having real-time and end-to-end visibility over the location of your shipping container.
In this article, let’s look at some of the challenges associated with container shipments:
Lack of clear communication
When you rely on your carrier and freight forwarders to get updates on your container’s movement, miscommunication often can and does happen. Going a step further, this results in poor communication between you and your customers as well.
In a world where customers prefer having real-time visibility over their shipments’ movement, communication is an integral part of supply chain management.
Modern-day solutions such as GoComet container tracking system allow you to track your container in real-time and share tracking data with your customers for their particular shipment. This enables unprecedented transparency over the movement of goods for you and your customer and eliminates the scope for miscommunication.
Security concerns – everywhere
Container shipments pass through several pairs of hands, more so if it’s a long-distance shipment. This makes the security of goods a key concern. Each shipment tends to go from a trucker to the storage facility and then from there to another truck, further to two-three ports and so on.
All this movement of your freight becomes a significant security concern without visibility; especially if a party involved in your chain breaks the security procedure. The solution? Keep track of your shipment at all times. The system will compare each milestone’s planned dates with the container’s real-time movement and auto-update you of possible delays.
This way, you can be sure that your container is reaching the right place at the right time.
Capacity crunch
Ocean shipments continue to drive global trade as even to date it remains a more prefered option over air shipments. However, with an increasing volume of shipments, and in light of disruptive events, the available space and capacity shrink.
This often leads to the spiking of rates to record heights and inconsistencies in sailing schedules adversely affect enterprises.
Delayed deliveries
Delivery times are an area of high expectations for everyone. With next-day and same-day delivery services becoming a reality, long-distance shipments’ duration may seem even longer than what the market is getting accustomed to.
Timely delivery of container shipments will continue to be a challenge merely owing to the number of stakeholders and layers of processes involved. Besides, chances of deliveries getting delayed tend to be higher during peak seasons and compromise customer satisfaction.
Inefficient infrastructure
As the global logistics industry proliferates with increased shipments and bigger ships emerging in the market, the infrastructure in place is failing to catch up.
Some ports don’t have sufficient space or facilities to store containers that come off them. Infrastructure has become a concern, especially in developing countries where deliveries are increasing, but ports aren’t equipped to handle the growth.
Optimise container shipping with GoComet
GoComet’s Container Tracking platform is built to auto-capture every movement of your shipment in real-time and send automated updates on important journey milestones straight to your inbox. The system will also help you to assess carrier performance by comparing planned milestone dates with actual events.
Besides, the platform is designed to offer comprehensive information on a single integrated dashboard. With GoComet, you can gain 100% clarity across all your international shipments. You can leverage the platform’s predictive analytics and drive cost savings through data-driven decisions.
