Hapag Lloyd's 1.6 million container fleet will be equipped with tracking devices by 2024, and the carrier is celebrating the installation of its 700,000th tracking device, a significant moment as the company creates the world's largest smart container fleet.
On Monday, the device was installed on a shipping container at the company's headquarters in Hamburg, Germany's Federal Minister for Digital and Transport Dr. Falk Wessing. “Digitalization offers huge opportunities for the transport industry. One sign of this is the progress Hapag-Lloyd has made in building a fleet of smart container ships. These advances will not only benefit the shipping industry, but also strengthen Germany’s position as a center for innovation, and contributes to our vision of a better-connected and more efficient transportation sector,” Wissing said.
"We are proud to be at the forefront of the digitalization of container shipping. Our 'Smart Container Fleet' project aims to transform the industry and set new standards for supply chain transparency and customer service." Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen added.
Dry container monitoring will be a game changer as permanently installing real-time tracking technology on standard shipping containers and collecting data from them will increase visibility and answer the critical question: “Where is my container now?”
The solar-battery-powered tracking device is equipped with internal sensors and a global positioning system and will transmit data over mobile phone networks in addition to recording impact events and ambient temperature. The equipment is explosion-proof according to established standards, ensuring the safety of crew, cargo and vessel.
By early 2024, the vast majority of Hapag-Lloyd’s container fleet will be smart. Around the same time, Hapag-Lloyd was planning to launch a corresponding commercial product called Live Position.
