Category: Ports and Terminals

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The Rise and Rise of Terminal Operating Systems

Posted on | by cdorsey

For growing and ambitious ports, challenging bigger competitors often requires investment in new information technology like terminal operating systems, but the potential risks of moving away from established systems can be a barrier. What are these perceived risks and how can they be addressed?

Kaustubh Dalvi, Jade Logistics’ President of Global Sales, spoke to the Logistics and Materials Handling magazine about the benefits of upgrading to a new TOS over an in-house solution, what to evaluate when selecting a TOS, the importance of selecting a TOS that fits your business model, functional requirements you should consider, and how migrating to a new TOS is about people not just technology.

Read the full article on the Logistics and Materials Handling website.

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Close up photo of a row of steel coils at Alabama Steel Terminals

Maximising terminal efficiency

Posted on | by cdorsey

Small and medium sized terminals are trying to find their niche in the market. To be competitive they need to think outside the box.

Jade Logistics’ Client Relationship Manager for the Americas, Keith McSwain talked to Heavy Lift & Project Forwarding International magazine about how small and medium sized terminals are increasing efficiency by handling more than just containers. Keith talked about the opportunities available to those terminals that can prove they can handle all kinds of cargoes, steel, coil, cars, etc., he goes on to say “terminals are in the business of making money, and in order to do so, you need throughput.”

Read more here

How safe is your port?

Posted on | by cdorsey

Ports are under constant pressure to compete, they need to work faster, turn ships around quicker, load and unload trucks faster, and generally do everything at speed. However while they need to work faster, they also need to work safely. Hazards are everywhere on a port, and accidents can happen at any time. Operators must take every step possible to ensure the health and safety of people on their port, both staff and visitors.

There are many ways a port can ensure the safety of its staff and contractors, such as having sound practices and policies in place, educating staff, and using protective equipment, another is by keeping people and machinery separated as much as possible through the use of technology.

When implementing such a health and safety solution a port should consider its technology, people, and processes and ensure they are aligned and that any technology-backed processes put in place are followed by a safety conscious workforce.

Read about Master Terminal’s yard safety features in our Yard Safety Fact Sheet.

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A port with no terminals?

Posted on | by cdorsey

While a port with no terminals is hard to envisage, there are opportunities for ports to be innovative by harnessing the power of information technology.

Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the world’s most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate.

To be competitive, business models are changing across many industries and their supply chains. While a port with no terminals is hard to envisage, there are opportunities for ports to be innovative by harnessing the power of information technology.

An example is the practice of ports creating “virtual” or sub-terminals.

As a port grows and becomes more complex, the ability to manage terminal operations simply by having oversight of the whole operation becomes increasingly difficult.

Using information technology you can create a virtual terminal e.g. in an area of your yard or in a part of a holding warehouse. Implementing these sub-terminals into your port can help you and your systems better categorize, compartmentalize and manage day-to-day operations.

For each sub-terminal, varying pricing models can be applied as well as specific management of each area, while still having complete control and flexibility across the entire terminal. Automated messaging such as EDI can be used to ensure a shipper knows where their cargo is and what services and charges are being applied.

This results in cost savings for your shipping line customers based on what services they are using and the activities required. Rather than having across-the-board pricing for cargo, implementing separate pricing can work as an incentive for businesses.

For example, something stored in the yard might cost more than in the warehouse. This would incentivize importers and exporters against storing long term in the yard as a means of saving themselves money.

The success of the likes of Uber shows how you can use technology to look differently at how to enhance your competitiveness in an industry. Sub-terminals is one small way ports can do it.

Learn more about the Sub-Terminal features of Master Terminal.

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closeup of the ends of logs stacked in a pile

Can Break-Bulk Terminals Avoid the “Perfect Storm”?

Posted on | by cdorsey

Break-bulk focused ports need to find ways of improving performance in an economic way.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, maritime economist John Martin said US ports were facing a ‘perfect storm’ of under-investment in infrastructure while facing the need to cope with rising cargo volumes. This storm had “…surging cargo volumes slam ports ill-prepared to handle them.”

Retail strategist Frank Layo forecast in the same article that shipping delay costs to the US economic could reach $7 billion in 2015 and climb as high as $37 billion in 2016.

The struggles of the West Coast ports have been well documented. Investment expert Jonathan Rosenthal, managing partner of Saybrook Capital, expressed this in an article in the September edition of Logistics Management magazine about Los Angeles/Long Beach terminals, “In my business, we follow the money, and we see that the port ecosystem here is a little bit broken.”

Figures quoted in the Wall Street Journal put the world’s most efficient port, Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates, as turning container cargo 70% faster than the USA’s best performing terminal – the Port of Los Angeles.

In this perfect storm of rising demand and overcapitalized infrastructure, break-bulk focused ports need to find ways of improving performance in an economic way.

Less traditional terminals like those at the Port of Houston are stepping into the breach, offering services to shippers frustrated by congestion and delays. According to Logistics Management, Houston’s terminals experienced 20% growth in container cargo and 26% in break-bulk like steel in the year to June 2015.

“As a specialty break-bulk port, the types of cargoes we handle vary based on the current economic condition of the U.S.,” said Les Reardanz, CEO of WA-based Port of Everett, a user of Jade Logistics’ Master Terminal product, in a recent press statement. “The best way we can prepare for these market shifts is to have adequate infrastructure and a national freight strategy.”

Mr Reardanz was joining other ports in a call to the US government to put more focus on port infrastructure, particularly the landside connections.

Where break-bulk terminals can make their own quick gains in performance is upgrading their terminal operating system, to ensure every possible piece of capacity is extracted from existing infrastructure, delaying the need for costly investment.

Download our white paper Message in a Bottle: The challenges (and hidden opportunities) of managing mixed cargo.

“Colossal or clever? The choice ambitious ports face”: World Port Development

Posted on | by cdorsey

Keith-McSwain.jpgKeith McSwain, VP Client Relations  recently spoke to World Port Development about some of the current trends in the shipping industry and how ports can best compete:

American author Mark Twain once said: “To stand still is to fall behind.” Even today his wise words ring true and are pertinent to ports around the globe. In an ever-changing arena, ports and terminals must ask themselves key strategic questions in order to remain relevant. Chiefly – is bigger better? In an effort to stay competitive should terminals cater to mega container ships or offer more diverse services, like managing mixed cargo?

Read the full article, including Keith’s answers here.

‘Easter Sunday syndrome’ a warehousing opportunity for ports

Posted on | by cdorsey

Developing capacity for peak demand, are putting pressure on existing warehousing port facilities.

According to a recent Jones Lang LaSalle report on warehousing development in the ports and logistics sector, developers wary of “building the church for Easter Sunday” i.e. developing capacity for peak demand, are putting pressure on existing warehousing facilities.

Growing and ambitious ports are seeing an opportunity in this shortage of warehousing and logistics space in key logistics markets like the US. For the agile port, it’s an opportunity to leverage your own warehousing facilities more effectively for your user base and to attract new shippers.

Globally, many ports are adding or beginning to utilize huge warehousing zones, allowing greater flexibility. However, as your warehouse begins to expand, it can be harder to manage the complexities that this brings such as greater physical space, more staff and larger cargo to manage and store.

Whether it’s large or small scale cargo storage that you are establishing at your port, the opportunities and risks are the same. Congestion and inefficiencies are huge risks of warehousing; the need to streamline operations for efficiency becomes essential.

By ensuring that you have highly secure, responsive, and flexible systems in place, you are working to mitigate the associated risks with a warehousing addition to your port. Being able to have complete oversight of your warehouse, down to a shelving level can be a great asset to your business and even increase your bottom line through increased productivity.

Read more about how your terminal can improve the management of its warehousing facilities in our Warehousing fact sheet.

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“Carving a role for the multi-cargo TOS”: World Cargo News

Posted on | by siteadmin

The break-bulk sector is a growing area of opportunity for suppliers with the right applications. Capt. Kaustubh Dalvi talks to WCN about how Jade’s focus to service this market is leading to increased business.

While today even the smallest container terminal with a single customer needs a TOS to meet the basic needs of a shipping line, the break-bulk sector is less well developed. Paper systems, spreadsheets and in-house database systems are still very common. There are signs this is changing, and relatively rapidly.

Jade Software won contracts to implement its Master Terminal at 29 terminals around the world last year, all of which were mixed container/break-bulk facilities. Earlier this year, it announced a contract to install its Master Terminal TOS at seven multi-cargo terminals operated by Abu Dhabi Ports Company, continuing that momentum. The company also has dedicated container terminal customers, but its growth is overwhelmingly coming in the break-bulk/multi-cargo terminal sector.

Jade Logistics’ President of Global Sales,  Captain Kaustubh Dalvi, notes that consolidation in the industry is a factor helping Jade’s increased business level. For a long time, the port industry has been focused on chasing container opportunities, but as the industry matures “ports and terminal operators are also willing to diversify their service offering and/or venture into markets such as break-bulk”, he said. “I personally believe the break-bulk market, which has been under serviced in the past, has started receiving the attention it deserves.” Jade’s “rich experience and history” in the market means it is well positioned to help terminals leverage these opportunities.

The company has responded to the market by investing heavily in additional staff and offices to serve its growing customer base. Jade’s Logistics business drove a 56% growth in revenue in 2014. Despite this, Jade made a very small loss of NZ$1.1M (US$795,000) as it invested in new markets in the Middle East and the US. In announcing the company’s annual result, managing director David Lindsay said it had no plans to slow down investment, and it is aiming for a 10% increase in staff this year, with a lot of that being for new offices in Jakarta and Rotterdam.

Fit for duty

Meeting the needs of the very diverse break-bulk sector with an off-the-shelf application is challenging. Not only are there differences in operational processes, but there is a great deal more variety in the cargo itself. In many cases systems adapted from container terminal TOS do not meet the need to track and manage cargo through a break-bulk handling process.

Dalvi attributed Jade’s recent run of success with Master Terminal primarily to the system being designed, from inception, to handle these types of terminals. The software evolved out of ports that could not just rely on the container business, but at the same time understood the need to leverage IT to make all of their operations more efficient and customer focused.

Jade points out that, from an IT perspective, breakbulk operations have different requirements, based around how the cargo flows through the facility.

Disparate units

In particular, the cargo is often not neatly organised in a single unit like a container. Scrap metal, for example, can arrive on a truck carrying material with different grades, ownership and destination, all of which have to be sorted and tracked differently. Grain, meanwhile, could arrive in bulk, but leave in a combination of bags and ‘traditional’ dry bulk. Master Terminal can manage these challenges with a minimum of customisation, allowing terminals to deliver benefits to their customers through processes like EDI.

Getting them to this stage, however, is a real challenge. Most of the new users Jade comes across are still using paper-based systems, and need help implementing basic tools like EDI to meet the needs of their customers and the wider supply chain. Other more IT mature terminals are looking to leverage process automation and mobile technologies to “achieve further process excellence, as well as extend transparency across the major stakeholders in the supply chain”, said Dalvi.

Read the full article.

Source: WorldCargo News
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Is truck congestion at your port driving everyone crazy?

Posted on | by admin

For the port terminal focused on improving its competitiveness with shippers, automating vehicle appointments also offers a marketing opportunity.

Addressing this problem can become a marketing tool for the growing and ambitious port.

The transportation industry has been watching with interest, the port congestion situation along the USA’s west coast in recent months. Los Angeles and Long Beach terminal operators have been plagued with delays, causing immense frustration to their shipping customers.

According to a survey that trade magazine Journal of Commerce (JOC) released last month, 65% of 138 shippers they interviewed were considering permanently diverting cargo to ports outside the west coast area because of the delays.

Causes of the congestion are complex and interlinked, with the JOC identifying 12 major causes including cargo volume increases and labor relations issues. A significant component has also been truck queues at gates.

A survey conducted at west coast terminals showed that in October 2014 over a third of truck turns (queuing, delivering and leaving) were over two hours, double the accepted maximum for efficient delivery of cargo.

Like any infrastructure, port terminals are built to handle a level of peak congestion. Most of the time they can cope easily with volume, but at the peak things get challenging, including managing truck traffic. According to industry reports, congestion starts to emerge when a port is operating at 80% of capacity.

Truck congestion is a lever most ports can pull to reduce pressure on their infrastructure during peak times. Automation can help allocate truck visits more efficiently, improving carrier experience and also reducing local impacts like excessive noise or carbon emissions.

For the port terminal focused on improving its competitiveness with shippers, automating vehicle appointments also offers a marketing opportunity. Freight transport providers are increasingly focused on gaining market share not by cutting prices, but by delivering more value to their customers for the same cost. Ports that can reach down the supply chain and help make freight flow more efficiently between transport modes offer a real value proposition to shippers.

Read more about how your terminal can manage the flow of vehicles through your gate operations in our Vehicle Booking System fact sheet.