The Challenge
An Australian shipping company, responsible for transporting goods across Australia, faced difficulties managing its fleet of over 3,000 20-foot and 40-foot shipping containers. Manual stocktakes led to frequent miscounts, inaccurate inventory data and the risk of container misuse by third parties, causing delays and increased costs.
The Solution
To overcome these issues, the company adopted Thinxtra’s shipping container tracking solution, AssetInsight. This involved equipping the containers with rugged, waterproof trackers that transmit location data over Thinxtra’s 0G Network. The system provided reliable, cost-effective tracking, eliminating the need for manual inventory checks while improving container visibility and utilisation.
The Benefits
Thinxtra’s AssetInsight solution gave the company full visibility over its fleet, significantly reducing manual labour costs and preventing unauthorised container use. With reliable data, the company streamlined operations, ensured timely container returns and optimised asset utilisation, improving overall efficiency and reducing transportation delays.
Challenges in Managing a Complex Container Fleet
A leading Australian shipping company plays a vital role in the movement of goods across Australia. Its operations involve frequent transport of shipping containers on ships, followed by distribution via road and rail networks.
This complex supply chain requires tight coordination of container management to ensure that goods move efficiently from the ports to their final destinations.
The company’s container fleet is spread across over 100 sites, including ports and customer locations. To keep track of inventory, workers would manually count the containers, driving through the yards and taking note of what they could see. But containers were often stacked tightly or in hard-to-reach places, making manual counts prone to errors.
With containers of different lengths (20-foot and 40-foot) and different types (bulkers, side-door units), counting them accurately became a complex and time-consuming task.
This lack of accuracy caused several issues, including the company underestimating its stock and not having enough containers to meet demand. This highlighted the need for a reliable shipping container tracking solution and forced the company to take costly emergency measures to find containers elsewhere, leading to delays and disrupted schedules.
On other occasions, the company would overestimate its stock, leaving valuable containers idle when they could have been deployed elsewhere. Once the containers were out of the company’s control, they had little visibility into where they were or how long they were being used, which kept containers out of circulation longer than necessary, further compounding the company’s operational challenges.
“AssetInsight provides the company with crucial visibility into container movements and demand patterns, helping them plan more effectively for the future. This data has become a key resource for making informed decisions, reducing downtime, and ensuring they can meet customer demand without costly delays”
Sam Sharief,
Chief Operating Officer at Thinxtra
Using A Cost-Effective Container Tracking Solution
Recognising the need for better control over their container fleet, the company turned to Thinxtra’s AssetInsight solution. Thinxtra’s asset tracking solution provided a cost-effective, efficient way to monitor the location of containers.
The container trackers are mounted on the outside and built to handle tough conditions like UV exposure, saltwater, and the rough handling of shipping. Thinxtra worked closely with the shipping company to create a special installation method that protects the goods inside from damage and water leaks.
Each tracker uses Thinxtra’s 0G Network, which is perfect for sending small amounts of location data over long distances.
The company only needed a few location updates per day to keep track of their container movements, making the 0G Network a perfect fit for their needs. It offers low-power, long-range connectivity, allowing the trackers to run on battery power for more than five years without requiring any maintenance.
The system provides updates whenever containers enter or leave specific locations, such as customer sites or port facilities. The shipping company defined geofences around these important areas, enabling automated alerts whenever a container moves in or out, giving the company a clearer picture of container movements and utilisation.
Optimising Operations and Container Utilisation
With Thinxtra’s solution in place, the company has dramatically improved its operations. The trackers provide constant updates, eliminating the need for manual stocktakes.
Instead of sending workers to count containers, the company can now view accurate inventory levels across all locations, which has reduced operational costs and freed up valuable resources. Studies show that companies implementing shipping container tracking solutions like this can reduce logistics costs by up to 15% by improving asset utilisation and eliminating inefficiencies.
In addition to lowering costs, the solution has given the company control over unauthorised container use, reducing downtime and ensuring containers are returned and available for redeployment sooner.
By tracking container movements, the company can quickly identify when containers are being held longer than agreed or moved without authorisation. This visibility has sped up the recovery process, reducing downtime and ensuring containers are returned and available for redeployment sooner.
Additionally, the data insights from Thinxtra’s shipping container tracking solution have allowed the company to analyse usage patterns across their container fleet. This has led to smarter asset allocation, ensuring containers are deployed where they are most needed, which enhances operational efficiency and reduces logistical bottlenecks.
“By leveraging AssetInsight, this shipping company has turned logistical challenges into a competitive advantage. They’ve streamlined container management, gained transparency over their assets, and improved their ability to serve customers with greater reliability”
Sam Sharief,
Chief Operating Officer at Thinxtra
