Five Features of Informationized Container Ship

Container ship is a modern mode of transport in which containers are used as transport units to transport goods. It is suitable for ocean transport, railway transport, and international multimodal transport. China's railway container transport began in 1955. Now there are more than 500 stations handling container ship business, forming a network of container stations, gradually moving to a more mature stage of development, and it is in line with the international container transport.

The information intensity of the logistics industry is particularly prominent in the field of container freight transportation, and the demand for information management is more urgent. The followings are five features of the informationized container transport.

1. Highly Efficient coordination between container transportation and storage business

Container transportation and storage is a complex transportation system involving a wide range of aspects. Container transportation has to do with Marine transportation, land transportation, ports, freight stations, and units and departments related to container transportation, such as customs, commodity inspection, shipping agency companies, and freight forwarding companies. Suppose there happens improper cooperation between each other or a fault in the transportation process. In that case, the entire transportation operation will be affected, leading to the suspension and interruption of transportation production.

With the help of the third-party logistics information management system, the transportation status of each container can be tracked in real-time. And the operation status can be judged and analyzed in time according to the actual transportation status, thus helping find errors in time and quickly adjust logistics operations to achieve a high degree of coordination.

2. Diversified customer needs

Third-party logistics involves many customers, and different customers have different needs for the storage and distribution of goods. For example, some customers need first-in, first-out of goods. Some need value-added services such as unpacking, moving, strengthening, spraying, labeling, and repackaging. And some customers need to classify storage management of goods according to the requirements of temperature, dangerous goods grade, storage space of goods, etc.

All of the above value-added services will produce related costs and benefits. The help of the automatic billing management module of the information management system can help companies control costs and improve benefits in an all-around way. At the same time, the diversified needs of customers are reflected in the warehouse management system; respectively, thus customers' needs can be satisfied timely and efficiently.

3. Automatic billing management

Container logistics involves many toll points, including

Tolls: port tolls, container tolls, gate tolls, bridge tolls, container tolls, etc.

Container-related fees: repair fees, cleaning/tank fees, sewage charges, dropping charges, spray charges, etc.

Related expenses of warehouse service include material fee, packing fee, label fee, storage fee, pallet fee, fire prevention fee, fixing fee, heating fee, tally fee, shipping mark fee, etc.

Other fees are transportation fee, express fee, insurance fee, lightening fee, booking fee, refrigeration fee, making and lifting fee, etc.

The billing method for customers is complex and changeable, and it is time-consuming and laborious to rely solely on a person who is easy to make mistakes. With the help of an automatic billing management system, one can accurately control the cost and achieve careful management of expenses.  

4. Warehouse management system

Warehouse management plays a crucial role in the whole logistics supply chain operation. Suppose practical purchase, inventory control, and delivery can be guaranteed. In that case, the cost of management will increase significantly, and the quality of service is challenging to secure, affecting enterprises' competitiveness.

Today's warehouse operations and inventory control operations have been very complicated and diversified, relying only on manual memory and input, not only time-consuming and laborious but also prone to error, resulting in huge losses. With the aid of the warehouse management information system, the storage implementation process can be under control, and it is possible to achieve bar code label serial number management towards the position, batches, shelf life, distribution of goods. It will help achieve the standardized operation for the receiving, delivery, replenishment, goods collection, delivery, etc. Besides, it can make out a variety of statistics sheets following the demand from customers; the warehouse can be used much more efficiently, providing customers with the best service in a fast, accurate, and low-cost way.

5. Business Intelligence

Business intelligence is a data management tool based on the digitalized warehouse, online analytical processing, data mining, and other information technology. It can acquire, extract, integrate and transform the data in different company departments, various regions, periods, and information systems. In addition, it will help to build the data model to analyze according to other dimensions and depth. The hidden relationships between data can support decision-makers at the strategic level and guide business personnel at the tactical level.