The Port of Long Beach (POLB) is partnering with UNCOMN, a US technology consulting firm, to launch the “Supply Chain Information Highway,” a free-to-stakeholders cargo visibility service software.
The new cargo data tool will help shippers make better operational decisions by providing the data to integrate into their own systems and track their cargo through the complete supply chain, according to the port’s announcement.
The launch of the cargo visibility software is expected in February of the next year.
“This tool will put actionable data into the hands of supply chain participants, to enable them to make better plans and decisions,” said POLB executive director, Mario Cordero, who pointed out that the service software will be free, and the data collected will work with existing systems.
St. Louis-based UNCOMN was selected after a competitive request for proposals. The company has worked for more than 10 years supporting the Department of Defense’s US Transportation Command, US Army Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, and US Air Force Air Mobility Command in areas such as data analytics, cloud application development and cloud data environment development.
“In an era of e-commerce and overnight delivery, it’s more important than ever to have full visibility and transparency for shipments,” commented Long Beach harbor commission president, Steven Neal, who went on to note that the port’s goal in that project is to make a tool that will enable its partners to schedule and plan prior to cargo arrival and reduce delays during each handoff between modes of transportation.
The Port of Long Beach said it held meetings with industry partners and stakeholders to determine what services could be provided to help them support their businesses.
“The overwhelming response was that due to the varied nature of business issues across terminals, the best possible solution was to offer access to a platform that securely collected, curated and published data across all modes of transportation, and allowed users to analyse the data using their own systems,” said the port in a statement.
