The Port of Antwerp in Belgium, Europe's second-largest container hub, has announced a service offering cargo temperature condition monitoring for logistics assets and cargo, providing exception alerting solutions for cargoes for both shippers and 3PLs.
This service is provided in collaboration with Foodcareplus, an integrated international logistics provider offering speciality services in the food transportation industry, Dockflow, which is building the world's first integrated logistics online enablement platform, and TrakAssure, a leading provider of cargo monitoring solutions based on the ever-growing global LoRaWAN IoT network.
LoRaWAN is an abbreviation for Long Range Wide Area Network, designed for the Internet of Things (IoT) that has a much farther reach than bluetooth and Wifi.
The solution utilises existing LoRaWAN infrastructure at the port, where TrakAssure monitors are installed at load location and data streams into Dockflow's servers via API, allowing it to be shared with relevant stakeholders in the cold chain.
"This solution will allow us to monitor and manage higher volumes by exception [e.g. when the temperature of a particular container is out of normal range], allowing us to devote fewer man-hours to this particular task, thereby servicing our customer base with better quality," notes Steve Alaerts, Director at Foodcareplus.
"We now can manage by exception [e.g. when parameters of certain containers are out of the normal range] based on real-time data and share it through our enablement platform, so we can dispatch resources as required to pay particular attention to containers that display temperature variations", adds Michiel Valee, Co-founder at Dockflow.
"Cargo monitoring solutions have been around for a long time, and many of the processes for retrieving data loggers are time-consuming and labour-intensive, presenting only rear-view visibility with many hidden costs. TrakAssure can provide real-time data globally, connected through various public or private LoRaWAN gateways around the world. We can achieve this level of visibility while keeping costs down to levels that rival traditional data logger price points. We expect the first mover Port of Antwerp to become a model for many more global ports offering these services to increase volumes and offer better quality service to the intermodal communities," says Don Miller, Board Member at TrakAssure.
"At the port of Antwerp, our aim is to grow our volumes and provide services that have a meaningful impact on our customers and partners. By enabling network connectivity at the port, we allow our ecosystem to develop and engage while sharing data in an open and transparent environment that fosters higher quality through innovation. This project is a true testament to the value-added environment we wish to create for our customers," notes Stef Wilrycx, Marketing Expert at the Port of Antwerp.
The team will deploy thousands of monitors on cargo passing through the port within the next 12 months.
For more information:
Katrien Debeuckelaer
Port of Antwerp
Tel: +32 3 303 26 72
Email: communicatie@remant.be
www.remant.be