German container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd has launched a dry container tracking product that uses IoT technology on a large scale.

Called Live Position, it provides full on-demand door-to-door visibility and is said to close the blind spots of global logistics.

Hapag-Lloyd’s customers can now enjoy full transparency on the location of their shipments, from the start of transportation until the arrival at the destination. More than two thirds of the dry container fleets have already been equipped with tracking devices supplied by Nexxiot and Orbcomm. Installations continue globally to catch the last boxes during the summer.

“Live Position will contribute to our service quality and increase the ease of doing business with us,” said Hapag-Lloyd COO Maximilian Rothkopf. “It does close the blind spots of global logistics, enabling real-time decision-making and risk mitigation for our customers, while allowing a more efficient steering of our fleet of boxes.”

Henrik Schilling, head of global commercial development, added: “The participants of our successful pilot phase have already acknowledged that we are going the extra mile to eliminate one of their greatest concerns. Now we would like to take all our customers on this journey to further develop this product. We are currently working on feeding the tracking data into the customers’ operational systems via API. Another milestone for advancing the product will be the estimated time of arrival [ETA] prediction.”

Features of the initial basic product include a user-friendly interface and easy-to-use search functionality by container, booking number or in batches. The tool provides a quick overview of a shipment’s current location, allowing users to make any necessary adjustments in real time.

With a fleet of 266 modern container ships and a total transport capacity of 2.0 million TEU, Hapag-Lloyd (www.hapag-lloyd.com) is one of the world’s leading liner shipping companies. In the liner shipping segment, it has around 13,500 employees and 403 offices in 140 countries. Some 113 liner services worldwide ensure fast and reliable connections between more than 600 ports on all the continents. In the terminal and infrastructure segment, Hapag-Lloyd has equity stakes in 20 terminals in Europe, Latin America, USA, India and North Africa. Around 2900 employees are assigned to the terminal and infrastructure segment.

More information on Live Position can be found at www.hapag-lloyd.com/en/online-business/track/live-position.html.