Port of Long Beach to reduce delays with free cargo data tool

The Port of Long Beach has partnered up with the US technology consulting firm UNCOMN to launch a free-to-stakeholders cargo visibility service software.

As described, the software named Supply Chain Infomation Highway will help shippers make better operational decisions by providing the data to integrate their own systems and track their cargo through the complete supply chain.

With this free service, the partners hope to achieve better shipments plans, reduce delays and tackle the unprecedented disruptions to global trade caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the port, the industry partners and stakeholders agreed 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.

A soft launch of the tool is expected in February 2022.

“This tool will put actionable data into the hands of supply chain participants, to enable them to make better plans and decisions”, said Port of Long Beach’s executive director, Mario Cordero. “It will be free, and the data collected will work with existing systems”.

Long Beach Harbor Commission president Steven Neal said: “In an era of e-commerce and overnight delivery, it’s more important than ever to have full visibility and transparency for shipments. Our goal in working with UNCOMN is to make a tool that will enable our partners to schedule and plan prior to cargo arrival and reduce delays during each handoff between modes of transportation”.

Earlier this year, the US Port of Long Beach reported, for the first time, achieving all of the 2023 emission-reduction goals outlined in the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP), despite moving record volumes of containerised cargo.

The port’s annual emissions inventory report, presented to the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, found diesel soot is down 90%, smog-forming nitrogen oxides have decreased 62%, and sulfur oxides have decreased 97%, all while container throughput has increased 21%.