Global trade thrives on the efficiency of ocean freight, with nearly 90% of the world’s goods transported by sea. Real-time insights into shipment status, location and ETA are no longer optional - they’re essential for minimizing delays, reducing costs, and ensuring customer sastisfaction.
Despite its significance, achieving comprehensive visibility remains a complex challenge. Inefficiencies in visibility lead to billions of dollars in annual losses for businesses due to delays, surcharges, and unplanned disruptions.
In this article, we’ll explore the critical components of ocean freight visibility, analyze key challenges, and outline actionable strategies to help overcome these barriers.
What is Ocean Freight Visibility?
Ocean freight visibility refers to the ability to track and monitor shipments in real-time across international shipping routes. It provides accurate insights into the location, status, and Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) of cargo, enabling shippers to optimize the next scheduled delivery.
Visibility platforms integrate data from over 140+ sources, including carrier, customs, AIS, and port + terminal sources, to deliver precise container tracking, even for multimodal shipments. This includes insights into transhipment ports and each leg of the journey, ensuring shippers have complete control over their supply chain.
How to Enable Ocean Freight Visibility?
Achieving full visibility in ocean freight operations is no small task, but it’s essential for maintaining efficiency and meeting customer expectations. Here’s how you can get started:
- Implement Real-Time Tracking Technologies
Vizion's Container Tracking API deliver standardized, detailed tracking events by sending real-time tracking data directly to your ERP, TMS, or other software systems. This allows businesses to seamlessly monitor container movements, plan ahead for arrivals, and manage the transition from sea to land with ease.
- Integrate Data from Multiple Sources
Vizion aggregates data from various sources, including ocean carriers, terminals, rail, and customs, providing businesses with the insights needed to make informed decisions and enhance visibility across the supply chain. This integration facilitates better decision-making and enhances visibility across the supply chain.
- Leverage Predictive Analytics
Employ predictive analytics to anticipate potential disruptions and optimize routing. By analyzing historical and real-time data, businesses can make informed decisions to mitigate risks and improve delivery times.
By adopting these strategies, businesses can enhance ocean freight visibility, leading to improved operational efficiency, reduced costs, and increased customer satisfaction.
Key Challenges in Ocean Freight Visibility
Ensuring adequate ocean freight visibility is vital for supply chain operations but is often hindered by persistent challenges. Addressing these obstacles requires innovative approaches, technology integration, and enhanced collaboration among stakeholders.
1. Escalating Costs in Ocean Freight
The increasing costs associated with ocean freight, including surcharges, detention fees, and demurrage charges, remain a significant challenge for logistics managers. Poor visibility and unexpected delays often result in these unplanned expenses, putting additional pressure on budgets.
Solution: Avoid Detention and Demurrage Fees Through Proactive Monitoring
By implementing a visibility solution with real-time tracking capabilities, businesses can identify and address potential bottlenecks before they lead to costly delays. Vizion provides visibility into when a container is available for pickup and the last free day before additional fees start to accrue. This helps you reduce the risk of detention and demurrage charges by keeping track of important deadlines.
2. Rising Incidence of Disruptions and Exceptions
Frequent disruptions, such as port congestion or weather-related delays, continue to challenge ocean freight operations. These issues can snowball into significant supply chain disruptions without timely identification.
Solution: Monitor and Resolve Exceptions Early
Modern tracking systems equipped with real-time data sharing allow businesses to detect potential issues early in the shipment lifecycle. Vizion provides access to a comprehensive suite of global logistics datasets, including Port Performance, Port Activity, and Port Pairs. These datasets allow for the analysis of port throughput, container dwell times, and real-time port activity, enabling smarter decision-making regarding containerized freight movements.
3. Delayed Payment Processes
Even when shipments are delivered on time, delays in financial transactions, such as invoice processing and payment remittances, can create additional challenges for supply chain stakeholders. These delays often stem from a lack of visibility into financial and shipment data.
Solution: Enhance Cash Flow with End-to-End Visibility
Complete transparency throughout the shipment and payment process helps accelerate financial workflows. Visibility into shipment status and payment timelines enables quicker resolution of invoice discrepancies and claims, ensuring smooth cash flow management.
4. Limited Predictive Planning Capabilities
Many organizations struggle with inefficient planning due to inadequate visibility into shipment schedules and container movement. Without predictive tools, logistics managers face challenges in optimizing operations and improving network processes.
Solution: Focus on Shipment Visibility
Predictive visibility tools provide a comprehensive view of shipment activities, from pre-arrival planning to post-arrival container management. Accurate scheduling of loading, unloading, and cargo distribution ensures smoother operations and minimizes delays.
Conclusion
Achieving ocean shipment visibility is essential for modern supply chains, as real-time tracking and predictive insights help overcome challenges like rising costs and frequent disruptions. Leveraging advanced tools and technologies combined with collaboration across stakeholders, empowers businesses to optimize operations, reduce inefficiencies, and enhance customer satisfaction.
Take the Next Step - Connect with Vizion to enhance your logistics operations and set a new standard for ocean shipment visibility.
Why Vizion API?
- Real-Time Container Tracking: Gain access to the most complete, standardized, and detailed container tracking events via API or user interface with real-time container tracking data.
- TradeView: Monitor the live flow of any company's shipments 30 to 90 days before arrival to destination and analyze trends across 10 years of historical supplier, product, and logistics movement data. With 900 million shipment records, 140+ attributes per shipment, coverage spanning 190 countries, and comprehensive HS code data, TradeView empowers data-driven decisions that optimize global trade management.
Logistics Performance Hub: Access a comprehensive suite of global logistics datasets, including Port Performance, Port Activity, and Port Pairs, to analyze shipping trends, port throughput, container dwell times, and real-time port activity, enabling smarter decision making about containerized freight movements.
