FourKites Expands its Market-Leading Ocean Visibility Platform

FourKites, the world’s leading real-time supply chain visibility platform, introduced Dynamic ETA® for Ocean, a new AI-powered innovation as part of its Dynamic OceanSM offering, which provides shippers, carriers and 3PLs with the market’s most accurate estimated times of arrival (ETAs) for 100% of their ocean shipments across all lanes worldwide. In addition, the company has rolled out new capabilities for monitoring and mitigating demurrage and detention risks. With these new enhancements, FourKites now provides the most advanced and robust solution on the market for real-time and predictive ocean visibility, exception management and cost controls. FourKites’ announcement comes on the heels of President Biden’s executive order calling for 24/7 operations at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to ease supply chain bottlenecks.

These powerful new tools were designed in direct response to the ongoing disruptions in ocean shipping that have delayed shipments, causing fees and related expenses to soar. Port congestion, vessel delays, and incorrect or incomplete documentation are common challenges for ocean shippers during normal times; the global container shortage, port shutdowns, natural disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic and other recent incidents have exacerbated these issues and caused an accumulation of demurrage and detention fees that are reaching thousands of dollars per container per day — and which can rise into millions of dollars in annual transportation costs for shippers.

FourKites’ new Dynamic® ETA for Ocean provides real-time, automated and predictive ETAs that are 20% to 40% more accurate than carrier-generated ETAs. This new AI-driven capability is based on FourKites’ patented Smart Forecasted Arrival technology, and brings together voyage and routing data and captain data, alongside more than 5TB of historical Automatic Identification System (AIS) vessel data and 6 million port-to-port trips across 100,000 lanes worldwide over the last two years.

“FourKites’ automated reporting and tracking for ocean shipments provides more accurate and real-time data,” said Bob Hayes, Vice President of Global Supply Chain at Canfor. “This allows Canfor to respond to customer inquiries quicker and with up-to-date information on our upcoming shipments that would have otherwise had to be manually tracked.”

FourKites has also introduced a suite of new demurrage and detention tools that provide customers with an early warning solution and actionable insights, replacing the manual and/or spreadsheet-driven approaches used by most shippers. These tools include:

o Exception Dashboards that monitor the containers that are (or likely will) incur detention and demurrage fees, and provide real-time rerouting alerts and dwell time notifications for all ocean shipments. Customers can prioritize containers that are currently accumulating fees or that are at risk of incurring penalties, and estimate the costs that are being incurred to minimize transportation fees.
o Notifications and Alerts for containers that are (or soon will be) incurring demurrage and detention fees, giving customers the ability to minimize their impact on transportation costs and proactively manage customer satisfaction.
o Analytics Dashboards that provide performance trends by lane, carrier, stop and other areas, so customers can identify systemic problems, improve strategic decision-making, and minimize detention and demurrage costs.

“Ocean shipping is an indispensable mode of transport that comes with a great deal of uncertainty and risk,” said Chris Stauber, Vice President of Product - Ocean/Air at FourKites. “Today’s release of the industry’s most accurate predictive ETAs for ocean freight, together with our new monitoring and management tools for detention and demurrage, gives shippers the powerful capabilities they need to effectively manage and mitigate rising transportation costs during a time of constant upheaval.”

As ongoing disruption continues to impact global supply chains, FourKites has seen unprecedented growth in its ocean visibility platform. Over the last 12 months, FourKites has seen 450% growth in ocean loads tracked, and 40% growth quarter over quarter. Since launching Dynamic Ocean in April 2021, which covers 98% of global ocean shipments, 100% of terminals in North America and the majority of terminals in Europe, FourKites has seen a 50% increase in ocean visibility customers, including Yara International, International Forest Products and Zebra Technologies.

FourKites is a leading global supply chain visibility platform, extending visibility beyond transportation into yards, warehouses, stores and beyond. Tracking more than 2 million shipments daily across road, rail, ocean, air, parcel and courier, and reaching 176 countries, FourKites combines real-time data and powerful machine learning to help companies digitize their end-to-end supply chains. More than 620 of the world’s most recognized brands — including 9 of the top-10 CPG and 18 of the top-20 food and beverage companies — trust FourKites to transform their business and create more agile, efficient and sustainable supply chains. To learn more, visit https://www.fourkites.com/.