The ARETÉ AURUM awarded posthumously to Doctor Aldo Grimaldi

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On the 25th of May the ARETÉ AURUM award ceremony was held, awarded posthumously to Doctor Aldo Grimaldi. The ceremony took place at the headquarters of the Port Authority of Barcelona. The award was presented by Mercè Conesa, the President of both the Escola Europea and the Port of Barcelona, and was collected by Isabella Grimaldi, the daughter of Doctor Grimaldi. Participating in the ceremony were Eduard Rodés, director of the Escola, Valerio Esposito, GNV representative in Spain, and other members of the Grimaldi family.

The Executive Committee of the Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport, held in Barcelona on the 4th of April, unanimously took the decision to grant the ARETÉ AURUM award posthumously to Aldo Grimaldi in appreciation for his decisive contribution to the successful development of short sea shipping and the motorways of the sea in the Trans-European Transport Network and, as a founding member on behalf of Grandi Navi Veloci, to the success of the Escola.

The Escola grants the ARETÉ AURUM to people whose attitude and actions have decisive contributions to the creation and growth of our institution. Joaquín Coello (2016), José Anselmo Laranjeira (2016) and Sixte Cambra (2018) have received this distinction in the past.

 

#DidYouKnow – Short guide on packaging and security

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In this article for #DidYouKnow we think about the packaging and security of consolidated shipments (groupage). The question we aim to answer is how the should the boxes be transported? Several factors are the key to ensure the safe arrival of the goods at their destinations. These include:

– Packing: Packing must be made and manufactured “to measure” to avoid potential movements of the goods inside the wooden boxes.

– Handling: It is very important to pay special attention to the markings on the boxes, which contain information for correct handling.

– Storage: The conditions and duration of storage should be adequate to avoid any potential damage to the box, which could result in the damage of some (if not all) of the goods stored within.

– Transport: The packaging must be conditioned for the type of transport used.

Alongside these factors, the actual transport of our goods needs to be considered when planning the packaging of our goods. This can be sub-divided into the different transport modes:

  • Maritime:If the packaging is going to travel by sea, its destination, the type of container in which it will travel and the main components of the merchandise need to be taken into consideration prior to the packaging.We must bear in mind that the merchandise will be subjected to high levels of humidity, condensation and salinity. Therefore, for this type of transport, and in particular when dealing with goods that comprise electrical components, it is wise to use VCI protections, which release a series of micro particles that adhere to the goods and help reduce the risk of oxidation. Though mitigating the risks, these protections can’t fully guarantee the avoidance of moisture.Another common protection used by industry professionals is the use of barrier protections. These include the placing of a cover of an aluminum complex applied to a vacuum next to desiccant salts. This creates a microclimate within the cover, which allows the cargo to withstand pressure changes and avoids oxidation or corrosion of the goods within.
  • Air:The packaging that travels by air is subject to sudden changes in temperatures, condensation and humidity. As such, the protections used within packaging mimic those used in maritime transport (see above).
  • RoadGenerally, ground transportation does not call for specific protection unless the goods themselves, the warehouses visiting on the route, or the places visited during the transport journey call for it. Therefore, the packaging of road transport goods needs to be considered on an individual basis.

In all of the three cases listed above, lashing of the packaging needs to be considered. Lashing the merchandise ensures that it is completely immobilised. The goal is to prevent possible damages to the goods caused by blows, rubbing, displacements or overturns during transport.

Lashing of goods

Lashing is a very important in ensuring that goods arrive in perfect conditions at their destinations. What is lashing? It refers to the immobilising and attaching of the merchandise to the container, ship or truck.

There are no restrictions – all types of cargo can be lashed, whether they will be transported by air, sea or land.

It is called for whenever there is some free space between the cargo and the container. Lashing is done by means of slings and tensioners or airbags; this further depends on the characteristics and needs of the merchandise.

Occasionally, wood reinforcements can be used to stabilise the load and make the lashing safer. For example, vehicle transport can require standard lashing that consists of a sling system or mixed lashing (which uses standard lashing with an added wooden ring around the wheels for greater protection).

Both packing and lashing are key for the correct transport of consolidated loads. If they are not done correctly, they can cause accidents and result in (potentially very pricy) damages in the transport of goods. The packaged goods need to travel in the best possible conditions for content protection and load security, ensuring that the products arrive in pristine states at their destinations.

If you want to know more about packaging in consolidated transport, check out our upcoming course on Groupage and Consolidation Centres scheduled for the 17-19 of June 2019.

Written by:

  • Beatriz Jiménez, Servicios Recipe TM2, S.A.

A box management ecosystem to solve the empty container dilemma

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We need to re-oriente our thinking towards container management, argues Nicholas Press from CEC Systems.

Visibility is a high priority for shippers and carriers alike. Whether it is rate comparison, booking freight, tracking or monitoring a temperature-sensitive container, visibility is a necessity in today’s market. The growing number of technology providers providing visibility such as Traxens, Savi and EyeSeal and the evolution of interoperability of solutions improvements. The goal in much of these improvements is to provide shippers with more accurate, up-to-date location data and better analytics about where and why cargo bottlenecks occur.

While improving visibility is important, for the industry to achieve sustained improvements it needs to recognize that there are many inputs and relationships that surround the movement of containers which are integral to the successful movement of goods globally. There is a bigger picture that is often overlooked, however. That bigger picture is not solely focused on container transaction but rather, a container ecosystem that encompasses the entire lifecycle of containers and tracking devices – from research & development of hardware, the manufacturing process, ownership, maintenance, loading, booking, and tracking, final delivery, the repositioning and storage of the empty containers and, ultimately, the recycling of the containers.

If the industry is going to generate real efficiencies, there must be a move away from siloed management of containers towards a holistic approach.

Container management must be an ongoing evolution that brings four key areas of focus into an ecosystem. Effective management relies on more than just box optimization, it requires the physical, digital, analytics and services to be considered as equal parts of an overall solution. These four areas form a container ecosystem that when viewed and managed together, offer a comprehensive and integrated solution for the efficient use of containers.

Proper management of empty containers, for example, warrants extra attention as empty containers are one of the most significant areas of lost profit. The four areas (physical, digital, analytics, and services) interconnect and as you look to optimize and create new efficiencies in one area, you must also seek the advancement of the other three. Without a level of concurrent progress, the industry is potentially advancing without the strong foundation required to achieve real efficiencies. For example, as we at CEC Systems continue to evolve the collapsible container design, we will continue to develop and evolve the other areas in unison.

Begin with the physical

Let’s start with the design of the container. The global shipping and logistics industry is losing over $30bn annually on storing, handling and distributing empty containers but the general design of the box has not really evolved over the past 40 years. There is a good reason for this as there needs to be an international standard that allows freight to move across borders, but that doesn’t make it optimal in achieving long-term sustainability.

Instead of waiting for international standards to catch up with changing shipping needs, CEC Systems has developed COLLAPSECON – the world’s first semi-automated Collapsible-Economic-Container that enables four empty units to be collapsed and combined to form a single container, thus significantly reducing the cost of storing, handling and distributing empty containers. By utilising containers that collapse and combine, we are able to achieve a greater level of asset utilisation and availability across the global fleet. The result of this is a reduction in waste, bottlenecks, and congestion throughout the global network and a contribution towards a sustainable industry.

Although the container forms the physical part of the empty container issue it would be a mistake to focus only on this part as it does not take into account the other three container management areas. However, by re-orienting our thinking and making the container itself part of the container management ecosystem alongside tracking, analytics, and services, the combined effect is an improvement in operational efficiency and provisions a better return on investment and reduced environmental impact when compared to standard containers.

Add the digital

While the container itself as a physical item is the primary concern, we cannot proceed as an industry from shying away from the benefits digitalization brings. It is all very well and good that we seek to evolve the box itself, but we must in parallel be seeking to make containers as smart as possible.

As part of the ecosystem, the industry should be aiming to provide a new level of efficiency to tracking and optimizing container movements. If the industry desires real efficiencies, technology should allow a participant to monitor not only the container but the pallet, the box, the packet as well as have the ability to drill down to the level of detail to the individual product inside. Tracking should provide real-time and actionable information and through the use of blockchain, ensure the security and accuracy of data throughout the value chain. Trading partners, as well as service providers, will gain better visibility in their supply chains and understand their true costs of operation. This, in turn, can allow them to remove recurring issues from their network.

Achieving improved container management through the use of digital technologies and tracking may sound like a monumental challenge and very expensive, but in today’s digital age, the cost of technology continues to decline and many solutions exist to provide the level of visibility needed within the ecosystem parameters for improved container management.

Analysis and insights

A growing number of technologies such as sensors are not only tracking container location but also temperature, humidity levels and even the number of bumps along the route. In addition, sensors are sending information to improve the accuracy of data that may not have been caught or able to be managed through manual means.

However, big data is useless unless you can pull “actionable” data out of it. For an ecosystem to work a fundamental breakdown of data and information silos across the network is necessary. The knowledge and data provided by these devices and sensors need to be captured, securely stored in the blockchain and transformed into insights. It is not about generating more data, it is about generating knowledge and understanding to support better decision making.

Members of the ecosystem should be able to analyse their networks at both the macro and micro levels to create transparency, support continuous improvement, and create value for the stakeholders with their investments.

The result being, better analysis, actionable insights, accountability, and greater efficiencies. Not just for the operator or shipper, but for the industry as a whole.

Services to support the ecosystem

Adding to the physical, digital and analytics aspects, in terms of services, we can break this into three different components. There is the maintenance of existing assets, the continuous development of underlying technologies and the support services to enable functionality and operations. These services can include the management of containers, research & development, inspection, repair, requisite training and in the case of collapsible containers, collapsing as a service.

This is incredibly important to understand, as the ecosystem is about more than just a physical container and digital technologies. It’s about ensuring containers and other hardware such as tracking devices and underlying technologies are treated as assets, not commodities. If consideration is not provided then assets become useless before the end of their potential life span. Beyond lost revenue and poor service, the result is the need to build more units at additional financial and environmental costs.

We at CEC Systems envision these supporting services for the ecosystem that is similar to how aircraft are maintained… just far less complicated and life critical. As the fleet owner, we will look to develop our own maintenance services over time but we also will rely on partners in regions to ensure the ecosystem is maintained and users see the greatest benefit.

Not only do these services extend to a deeper level of customer service (satisfaction) but they also prolong the life and utilization of the hardware across the ecosystem, making them a more profitable investment for shippers and carriers alike.

How the ecosystem naturally begets sustainability

In the container management ecosystem, there needs to be greater attention paid not just to what happens when a container is built and used for the movement of goods, but throughout the containers entire life cycle. In particular, as we discussed it above, there needs to be a move away from market dumping/asset write off towards treating containers, other hardware, and software as important assets like ships and ports. In case of containers, for example, that means one needs to consider how containers are made, where materials are sourced from, what materials are used, what quality assurance processes are considered, how they are repaired, how they are used and in the end, how they are properly disposed of.

While they may not be able to be used on the seas, they can be modified for other purposes such as emergency accommodation to support disaster relief or short-term accommodation for those without a home (and in some cases, entire Apartment Communities built out of old containers). There are plenty of options for the faithful box but as part of the physical area of the container management ecosystem, we will end up with thousands of containers spread throughout the world. Where possible, recycling of these assets should be placed as a top priority.

In conclusion

Creating and supporting a container ecosystem creates a holistic approach to container shipping in a way that hasn’t been considered before. In terms of organizational health, the ability to collapse and store four containers in the space of one will go a long way towards saving companies money. By investing in the life cycle of these containers, fewer resources will be poured into making new ones which will also protect both the environment and the profit margin. The hardware and software that goes into managing containers will provide a new level of visibility throughout the supply chain increasing both agility and efficiency. The service offering created through this arrangement not only helps to support the container ecosystem but will also serve to deepen and, subsequently, strengthen the working relationships between collaborating partners.

By re-orienting our thinking towards a container management ecosystem consisting of the physical, tracking, analytics, and services, the combined effect will be a long-term improvement in operational efficiency, better return on investment and reduced environmental impact.

Source: Splash 247

Tempearture Controlled Supply Chains

The first edition of the Temperature Controlled Supply Chains Technical course ends with great success

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In the second quarter of 2019 the Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport began to implement the scheduled technical courses of the year. The courses, aimed at professionals active in the logistics- port sector, began with the first edition of the “Temperature Controlled Supply Chains” course, which took place between the 6th and the 9th of May.

The course covered concepts associated with cold supply chains. Encompassing details of the common practices in planning and execution of said supply chains, the course made it possible for the participants to discover each of the steps required in these transport operations. A special focus was given to intermodal processes as well. Course contents included the distribution of temperature-controlled products (warehousing, manoeuvring and transport) through distribution networks (suppliers, service providers and clients) in accordance with their specified temperature conditions. Visits to Mercabarna (the wholesale market of Barcelona), a container terminal, an importer/distributor storage facility, a container depot, and the Border Inspection Point accompanied the theory.

In this first edition, the Port of Barcelona, Mercabarna, Barcelona Container Depot Service, Caudete Logística, Grimaldi Lines, Maritime Terminal of Zaragoza, Maersk, Frimercat, Cultivar and Martico collaborated with the Escola in the development of contents and visits. The participants comprised a dozen professionals from the transport and logistics sectors, coming from companies such as: JCV Shipping & Solutions, Noatum Maritime, COSCO Shipping, Total Freight, Saice, Agility, Arola, Dallant and Solport.

Álvaro Sánchez, a Mediterraean Reefer Specialist and a presenter in the course, stated the following about the experience: “It is a young course that can meet the knowledge needs and concerns of all participants in the cold chain and create an awareness of good practices in the handling of cargo transported under controlled temperature conditions. The combination of theory and technical visits (terminal, Depot, warehouses …) makes it even more interesting. “

In the coming months the Escola Europea will carry out the remaining technical courses of the year including: training in rail-port intermodality SURCO Operations I, from the 10th to 12th of June; training in Groupage and Consolidation Centres, between the 17th and 19th of June; and the Summer School in Port Operations, with a focus on Vessels and Cargo, from the 1st to the 5th and 8th to 12th respectively.

#DidYouKnow – What training do we need to work with NVOCC’s?

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Consumption models are evolving towards systems of more customised attention to the final consumer. This has consequently fuelled a change in manufacturing and distribution models. More and more products of very different sizes are exported with very short delivery times and sent directly into the hands of the final customer. It is the evolution from a large shipping model to a new one maintaining a constant flow of medium or small shipments. Simultaneously, the modes of transportation have steered towards gigantism. Ships, trains, trucks and airplanes are becoming larger and larger in search of greater efficiency and lower environmental impact. Loading units, however, have remained the same.

Groupage offers a very good solution for such shipments that result from purchases made through e-commerce, bringing us closer to what we call the Physical Internet. It offers a new environment with the capacity to manage relatively small load units that rely on intermodal transport, which in turn rely on large modes of transport: large ships, trains and mega-trucks.

This technique that optimizes transportation not only generates multiple benefits for the loaders, but also gives great advantages in terms of the concern for the environment.

Customer demands are constantly changing. It is also necessary to keep up with any legislative changes, new transport options and technological inventions. New skills must be developed in the fields of information technology, environmental transport and collaboration. The consolidator works door-to-door. As such he or she needs to be able to manage operations between different countries, with different operators and through the use of various sophisticated technological tools.

The flexibility of an NVOCC makes it attractive to small to medium-sized enterprises, but big companies that manage large volumes of freight across their supply chains also need flexible options.

The consolidation centres are the ones who can best face the challenges posed by this evolution. There is a long way to go ahead of us, and it begins with the training of the operators and companies that will choose groupage as an alternative to their transport systems.

Moreover, more and more companies are looking for opportunities to establish cooperation agreements for the supply and distribution of goods. Many companies share vehicles to improve occupancy, reduce fuel consumption, reduce emissions, improve vehicle utilisation and reduce costs. Operators include these initiatives as part of their environmental and business strategies. Groupage has proven to have clear environmental advantages, when compared with each operator using their own vehicles to deliver small, often uneconomical consignments. Today alliances in transport are becoming more and more frequent.

Most companies see groupage as a possible risk to their cargo. Loss, theft, lack of information or control of the cargo are the main concerns when thinking about combining your shipment with that of other companies. It is true that not all cargoes are susceptible to groupage, but that is why there are specialists that analyse and organise these services to maintain control of all transport and consolidation, therewith minimizing the risks that may occur.

It is thus essential to detect what training and information is needed for operators to be able to take advantage of groupage. Some of the subjects in which lack of training has been detected among freight forwarders, direct customers of NVOCCs, and shippers, range from the identification of the main operators and the services offered from a consolidation centre, the differences between types of groupage by mode of transport and the situational analyses to evaluate the use of groupage, to more complex scenarios such as customs procedures, packaging and labelling of goods, risks and groupage coverages or special treatments of specialised goods.

All of these topics are dealt with in depth in the specialised course on Groupage and Consolidation Centres offered for the third consecutive year by the Escola Europea. This year’s edition will take place from 17 to 19 June 2019 in Barcelona. The main objective is for people to be able to know all the casuistry, processes, documentation and legislation that applies to door-to-door groupage operations. This should familiarise the students in the use of groupage services and therefore a encourage their development. In the two previous editions, companies of different types have participated, including Mercadona, Rhenus Logistics, TransGlory, DB Shenker and Fundación Cares, among others.

The idea of offering a course with these characteristics arose from an analysis of the evolution of supply chains and from the need for professionals and students to have more specialized training, which is structured around a theoretical basis and which also allows for the most practical part of operations to be seen through visits to leading operators in the sector. Companies and entities active in groupage such as the Romeu Group, IFS, Globelink Uniexco, Ibercondor, TM2, ATEIA, PORTIC, the BEST terminal and the Port of Barcelona actively participate in the Escola’s course.

The final aim is to inform companies of the best practices for groupage and explain the operation of the whole system so that they can consider it as an option for transporting their goods and contribute to a more efficient and sustainable transport system.

Written by:

  • Raquel Nunes, Training Programmes & External Relations Manager (Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport)
Artificial Intelligence

Shipowners Still Not Ready to Give Up Control to Autonomous Vessels

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Shipowners seem to be hesitant to relinquish control of their vessels in favor of autonomous solutions, as they trust their captains and crews more than smart technology.

In general, the shipping industry’s approach to new technologies has been described as “conservative“, especially when it comes to autonomous solutions that could theoretically replace the crew.

This has led to the slow adoption of solutions that are vital to reducing collisions, Yarden Gross, CEO of Orca AI revealed in an interview with World Maritime News.

In order to overcome the maritime industry’s fear of new technology adoption, the company has designed the Orca AI system to be “a tool that the crews can use, not to replace the crew.”

Established in 2018, Orca AI has the vision to reduce human-caused errors through intelligent autonomous vessels. The company was founded by Yarden Gross and Dor Raviv, who both have served in the navy and know the industry and its needs.

“We realized that despite the technological advances being adopted for other modes of transport, the shipping industry is lagging behind. This is due to a variety of factors, including that the maritime environment requires navigation and collision avoidance technology, which need to be specifically suited to the industry and that’s what we seek to provide,” Gross said.

“We want to help create an ecosystem that will lead us to autonomous ships while keeping in mind that we’re not quite there yet.”

He added that there are things that need to be done to improve safety now — providing collision avoidance technology that works for ships.

As informed, 3,000 marine collisions occur each year and more than 75% are due to errors in human judgment. According to Gross, this is alarming as current navigational tools require a significant reliance on human judgment, which leaves room for costly error.

“Our immediate goal was to create a solution that would help ships use AI safely navigate zero and extremely low visibility conditions and crowded waterways, where the majority of collisions take place. Our solution minimizes the opportunity for errors in judgment, thereby reducing the chances of collisions.”

Orca AI system

Specifically, the Orca AI system uses sensors already on board a vessel and adds separate ones as well, such as thermal and low-light cameras, and feeds the information into an AI-powered navigation system.

The system was designed to be easy to use and intuitive, given that the crew manning the bridge is occupied with a myriad of responsibilities, so the system enables them to make smarter navigation decisions more easily. There is no training required to operate the system and it doesn’t add extra work for the crew, Yarden said.

As visibility issues are common and a big contributing factor in naval collisions, Orca AI founders said they decided to tackle that issue right from the start with sensors designed for situations with poor visibility. Orca AI is currently operational and providing crews with crucial information in piloted installations on board vessels. Those pilots are continuing as the company develops new versions of the system.

Installation

Orca AI has been installed and piloted onboard several car carriers owned by Ray Carriers, the company’s first client and key investor.

Data from the voyages that have been taken since the system installation are still being analyzed, but so far everything is looking promising, Orca AI’s co-founder said.

The Orca AI system can be used on any vessel – size is not an issue, as the sensor payload is not very large or intrusive. However, the company is focusing on larger vessels first, as the challenges of collision avoidance and costs of collisions are most pronounced for this class of ships.

“Orca AI’s navigation system is fit for all types of vessels, using information from sensors already on board and supplementing them with cameras of their own in a relatively small payload. We are looking forward to working with different classes of ships, helping them safely navigate crowded waterways and avoid collisions in hard-to-see situations where their difficulty in rapidly adjusting course makes early detection of other ships a priority,” Gross told WMN.

When asked what are the prerequisites for the installation of the Orca AI solution, Gross pointed out that there are no impediments to installing the system on any ship type. The installation is said to be straightforward and the system is easy to integrate on the bridge, so the age of the ship has no impact on the process.

AI and the maritime industry

Several autonomous vessels projects are currently being developed around the world. As informed, Orca AI is in discussions with the large technology providers that are building the eco-system for the future of autonomous vessels. Gross noted that these companies understand that they cannot build everything by themselves, so they are seeking partners to collaborate with.

“An autonomous vessels are like a puzzle, there are many crucial pieces that all need to fit together, and we are trying to build the best technology in the world for one of the most important pieces of the puzzle,” according to Gross.

Artificial Intelligence, which has been the buzzword over the recent time, is becoming increasingly important for the maritime industry as well.

“AI is a tool for solving problems that have been hard to solve until now. For the maritime industry, it is enabling us to tackle issues such as detection of ships and other items on the water, and alerting and assisting the captain and the crew with the navigation of the ship,” Gross said, adding that AI is also helping solve many more problems in the industry such as logistics, predictive maintenance, internal operations, etc.

“I think that for certain use cases AI is already able to provide real value, and as the maritime industry continues to adopt AI solutions and develop them, we will see increased efficiency and safety, as well as seeing a reduction of costs across the board,” Gross concluded.

At the end of January 2019, Orca AI closed a funding round, raising USD 2.6 million. With the help of the new funds, the company plans to grow its engineering ranks and establish an office in Europe this year.

Orca AI’s key steps for moving forward will be to continue installation of the company’s system onboard more ships, which has so far proved to be a major success. Additional partnerships with other shipping companies are currently in the works and Orca AI is ramping up production to meet the growing demand.

Source: World Maritime News