Maritime Business Solutions Can Help Prevent Accidents At Sea

Shipping containers that fall overboard continue to become a burden for shipping companies. Recently, another container vessel carrying tons of cargo had the misfortune of encountering dangerous weather that caused 29 containers to fall overboard.  On the weekend of January 21 the Cosco Yokohama, an Asian container vessel carrying various sports memorabilia from China, was traveling along a route from Asia to Prince Rupert, British Columbia when it happened upon particularly bad weather in the Gulf of Alaska.

According to the logistics company who shipped the sports memorabilia, the extreme weather broke the container lashing and caused a whole row of container to fall into the sea. It may be due to inappropriate lashing, or extremely severe weather. Either way, the lashing broke and caused a total of 29 containers to fall overboard and sink in the sea. As of now, the contents of the shipping containers have been continuously washing ashore on the beaches of Kodiak Island, Alaska. The Island Trails Network, responsible for collecting tsunami debris, has asked for emergency funds to cover the cleanup of Kodiak’s beaches.

Although unprecedented bad weather is a hazard of container shipping that can’t be avoided, maintaining the integrity of container lashings can be achieved with the proper tools. To avoid such accidents like this from happening, shipping lines should invest in shipping company software that promote the best practices in maritime shipping. Maritime software solutions can include a container management software that can help dockworkers and shipping crew members make sure that containers are properly stowed and lashed.

Marine Software Solutions: An Environmental Necessity

Traversing through the seas might seem like a relatively easy task for seasoned voyagers. However, the sea is still a perilous environment that will easily overpower anyone who is foolish enough to take it lightly. In the news, we are often told about container liner ships that crash on reefs, causing not only financial losses on the part of the shipping lines and delays with the freight cargo, but also environmental issues that include destruction of precious marine habitat and the possibility of the much dreaded oil spill.

Just recently, it was reported on The Australian that a bulk carrier from Hong Kong lost power off the north coast of Queensland. The carrier slowly drifted towards the Great Barrier Reef - a world heritage site - but luckily passed over it safely. Australian authorities were initially alarmed that it may hit the Shark Reef, and immediately rushed to secure the shipping vessel. However, because it was the third reported incident in the past month, marine pilots have asked authorities to review the current shipping trade routes to avoid the possibility of an actual Great Barrier Reef disaster.

To help prevent the frequent occurrence of these accidents, marine software companies use recent advancements in technology to develop maritime software solutions that will enable shipping lines to calculate the safest and most profitable trade routes for transporting goods, particularly when they are carrying dangerous chemicals such as oil. A voyage calculation software such as this will help shipping lines avoid costly disasters should their tankers and carriers lose power similar to what happened with ID Integrity.

The Need For Improvement In The Shipping Industry

Despite rapid advancements in technology, container ports throughout the globe still operate on inefficient industry practices that often cause hours of delay, unintended damage to consignments and even loss of cargo (through theft) - not to mention pose various safety and security risks for the stevedores. These shipping issues are further compounded by documentation problems such as bill of lading fraud and rampant misdeclaration of cargo weights.

Systematic and centralized port operations are difficult to achieve, especially for the shipping industry where accountability for consignments are continuously transferred from one shipping agency to another throughout the cargo transportation process. This is a problem faced not only by private port operators but a constant challenge even for established ports around the globe.

Innovative and technological business solutions should be the focus of international shipping and maritime organizations to reform outdated processes in the shipping industry. Having advanced maritime software solutions will help a shipping agency streamline performance, sustainability and productivity throughout port operations. For example: there are feeder shipping software available that will significantly enhance cargo transportation, loading and unloading; container management software that will improve cargo stowage planning and ensure safety; and even port disbursement software that help secure all port transactions.

Shipping organizations and shipping software companies who wish to further improve port efficiency can participate in Singapore’s New Generation of Container Port (NGCP) Challenge, where development of innovative concepts and proposals will be sponsored by Singapore Maritime Institute (SMI) in the hopes of revolutionizing the container port industry.

Why Shipping Container Repairs Are Important

After years of use, constant transportation and exposure to harsh environmental conditions can cause significant wear and tear on shipping containers. Container integrity is an important factor in the shipping industry. In particular, the necessity of cargo containers to transport large amounts hazardous materials across vast oceans highlights the need for safe and secure shipping containers. Shipping lines transporting these hazardous materials are often cited by wildlife and nature preserving organizations to be the leading cause of marine pollution and damage, often resulting to lawsuits and litigation. Therefore, maintaining the integrity of these containers is a major industry concern.

Additionally, damaged containers pose serious risks for the safety of shipping crews, stevedores and warehousemen. These can easily collapse during stowage or drop when being loaded or unloaded on shipping vessels.

Replacing damaged containers is extremely costly, which is why these containers are instead sent to ports that provide container repair services. This option, however, is still considered expensive. Shipping software companies have developed business solutions to help ensure shipping agencies that reliability of container repairs are guaranteed. A reliable container repair software can be purchased to reassure any shipping agency that all damages in the containers are repaired and its transportation worthiness is restored.

It is best for liner shipping operators to utilize other industry solutions to further minimize container damages and reduce costly repairs. There are maritime software solutions available that include container management software to facilitate proper container stowage planning that will effectively remove the risk of container-related accidents.