Remote Container Management (RCM) provides visibility of a refrigerated container’s location and atmospheric conditions inside throughout its journey. Maersk expects an increase in its traditional perishable reefer volumes.
With RCM, both customers and Maersk Line have complete[ds_preview] access to the reefer’s current location, temperature and atmospheric conditions inside as well as the power status, at all times and no matter where it may be in the world. Meanwhile, Maersk Line’s RCM experts are to manage the container, either remotely or through notifications to local technicians if a hands-on fix is required. According to Maersk customers had asked for these capabilities for a long time.
On 24 July the Danish shipping giant will launch the new service in Maersk Line and the Maersk family of container shipping lines.
»The old days of waiting, hoping and reacting are over. Our customers can now monitor and make decisions about their supply chain as their cargo moves, as well as use the data to study and improve their entire supply chain. Particularly for our customers with very sensitive, higher value refrigerated cargo, RCM significantly raises the total value proposition of refrigerated container trade,« says Vincent Clerc, Chief Commercial Officer for Maersk Line.
Simple technology
The technology behind RCM it is relatively simple. A GPS, a modem and a SIM card on all 270,000 of Maersk’s refrigerated reefer containers enables location, temperature, humidity and power status readings to be continuously collected and stored. That information then reaches customers and RCM global support teams via satellite transmitters on 400 of Maersk Line’s owned and chartered ships.
With clarity about the location and condition of the cargo at all times, not just during the ocean transport but throughout the journey of the container, RCM will help identify problem areas in customers’ supply chains and ways to improve them, Maersk explains. For example, if a customer’s reefer is not being pre-cooled as agreed at the farm, the customer can easily see this in the temperature graph on their screen and can contact or follow up with the supplier and the farm. Likewise, if a truck driver or port worker turns off the power to the reefer, this will be visible.
In the event that the container malfunctions and local technicians are not able fix it, RCM’s automatic notifications gives the customer time to notify their affected customers and plan alternatives such as unloading the container at an earlier port for a discounted sale.
Volume growth and new markets
In the first six months of 2017, RCM has alerted Maersk Line to more than 4,500 incorrect temperature settings on customers’ reefers, the shipping company says.
»We expect we will see an increase in our traditional perishable reefer volumes like agriculture as a result of RCM, but also new opportunities in sectors like pharmaceuticals where there is also a need for the kind of supply chain integrity RCM provides,« says Vincent Clerc.
