FourKites enhances ocean visibility platform

Supply chain visibility platform FourKites has enhanced its ocean visibility platform with tools to help shippers better manage estimated arrival times for ocean shipments and mitigate demurrage and detention risk, the company said Tuesday.

The enhancements to the company’s Dynamic ETA for Ocean are in response to the delays and disruptions that have plagued global supply chains over the past year and a half, and come as West Coast port congestion continues to slow domestic supply lines.

“With ocean chaos disrupting the global supply chains, including the latest congestion at West Coast ports, shippers are seeking out ways to remain competitive, increase customer satisfaction and minimize delays and stockouts,” said Chris Stauber, vice president of product for Ocean/Air at FourKites. “As we look to solve these problems both today and in the future, we're really going to need digitization and clear digital communication to all stakeholders. One of the things that’s so important now is being able to collaborate between partners and gain visibility into what’s taking place at every point across the supply chain. That’s what FourKites is all about: Providing visibility into cargo movements and shipments as they go from ocean to rail to truck, and then into the warehouses.”

Dynamic ETA for Ocean provides shippers, carriers, and third-party logistics services (3PL) providers with accurate ETAs for 100% of their ocean shipments across all lanes worldwide. A new capability provides real-time, automated, and predictive ETAs that are 20% to 40% more accurate than carrier-generated ETAs, according to FourKites. The AI-driven capability is based on FourKites’ patented Smart Forecasted Arrival technology, and brings together voyage, routing, and captain data, alongside historical Automatic Identification System (AIS) vessel data and 6 million port-to-port trips across 100,000 lanes worldwide over the last two years.

The upgrade also includes a suite of 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—and helping to potentially reduce costs.

Those tools include:

• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.
  “With FourKites’ recent ocean innovations, including our Demurrage & Detention Dashboards and Dynamic ETA for Ocean, we are providing a holistic end-to-end view of your ocean journey in the most robust and advanced solution for real-time and predictive ocean visibility, exception management and cost controls,” Stauber also said.