The Top Benefits of Ocean Freight Tracking

 Ocean shipment is a conventional process that exporters & importers use to transport goods globally. It is beneficial for trading overseas while dealing with large shipments of heavy goods and products like timber, furniture, vehicles etc. The demand for track and trace services is necessary for ocean shipment due to ongoing delays, backlogs and disruptions. Ocean freight tracking processes include real-time GPS tracking, container or B/L number tracking, accurate on-demand monitoring and container visibility.

 

Today, monitoring and tracking shipments and accessing container locations on-demand are considered essential services rather than voluntary ones on the table of overseas transport dealing.

 

Benefits of Ocean Freight Tracking

 

Freight forwarders use smart tracking technology to secure the transporting process and ensure client satisfaction. Once shipment tracking and monitoring becomes available, shippers and carriers together can be benefited in the following ways:

 

●       Improve the trading process: Using the freight tracking technology, stakeholders can monitor and analyse the data of carriers, timing and delays in transit, loading and arrival timings. In short, smart tracking can provide an efficient trading process with global stakeholders.

 

●       Access to real-time data: Freight tracking technology provides insights into cargo shipment status, delays, tracking data and general transportation updates in real-time.

 

●       Customer satisfaction: Freight tracking improves the experience of overseas trading and provides peace of mind for the end-user by giving insights into route changes, status and delivery to all stakeholders at the same time

 

●       The quick response to delays and obstructions: Delays can happen at any time for both natural or unnatural causes in the supply chain. Freight tracking offers real-time notifications to counterparties that allow faster responses to obstructions & the pre-planning bandwidth to counter those delays.

 

●       Cost-saving and increasing Return-On-Investment (ROI): A reliable shipping container tracking system enhances the ROI and overall profits of your business.

 

There is no denying that any interruption in shipment delivery will adversely affect the supply chain schedule. Key market players are relying on trusted freight forwarders and supply chain automation platforms to grow their brand value.

 

Trusted names like Centersource Technologies provide smart freight tracking systems to get more visibility and clarity for overseas transportation across the world. It allows advanced technology and globalisation of the supply chain.  To know more, visit- https://www.centersource.io/

How to Go Paperless with an Electronic Bill of Lading?

 Business owners who trade across international borders have found ways to work through their processes with limited assistance from the respective governments. In this context, a range of devices has enabled owners to effectively interact, build contracts, allocate risks, and help to secure their interests while dealing with various counterparties. One such medium is the bill of lading, which has been in use since 1794. 

 

Every delivery in logistics involves paperwork. So, if logistics makes the world go round, then the paperwork is the head part of logistics. Logistics breathes in paperwork. A bill of lading serves an essential purpose throughout the day. 

However, recently with the advent of technology, most businesses have urged that time has arrived to replace the paper bill of lading with an electronic medium. They claim that all the exporters, importers, consignees, and forwarders incur expenses due to the delays caused by the payment through paper documents. 

 

Overview of Electronic Bill of Lading:

Bill of lading is one of the core documents in international trade, performing various functions including:

 

●        Receipt required for shipping acknowledgment when the cargo was loaded in the ship

●        Evidence of the contract made between carrier and exporter

●        A document of title that signifies whoever owns the original copy is the one legally permitted to deliver it to the destination point. 

Electronic bills of lading are a digital substitute to traditional courier service that allows instant, authentic exchange of original documents. With an exception to replica copies of original documents, this process helps transferring digital original documents via end-to-end blockchain technology as opposed to a physical courier. 

 

What does “Fully Paperless Trade” Signify?

 To differentiate between EDI (electronic data interchange) and existing eBL implementations, the term ‘fully paperless trade’ is used. That means, the system must comply with the following: 

 

●        Creation of document must be fully electronic

●        Documents must be approved via digital medium

●        Communication with banks must be done electronically

●        The process of document exchange must be done through an end-to-end digital supply chain. 

The obvious answer to this process is to implement a software solution that allows all counterparties to access the bill in an electronic document format. The electronic bill of lading or (e B/L) is a regulatory and functional substitute of a bill of lading. The electronic bill of lading must digitalize the main functions of a paper bill of lading, including legal approval as a receipt, or evidence containing the contract of carriage. 

Based on the understanding, the speed at which international trade moves and the inefficiencies caused without it is needed to be considered. Hence a digital solution is needed to replicate and automate the logistics system. 

 

Deploying an Electronic Bill of Lading:

Usually, an electronic bill of lading can be created by the shipper. During the creation, the shipper needs to add the Cargo details, the port, the vessel, HS CODE, etc. You can create the document directly through the Nafeza portal. The record of the electronic BL ensures the originality of the data. After the approval of the electronic BL, a shipping service receives an email, allowing them to release the cargo from the departure port upon the issuance of the receipt. 

 

Integration of eBL with CenterSource:

Centersource has created a supply chain collaboration platform - a so-called SaaS - that effectively works as a shared workspace where importers, exporters, and forwarders work together more efficiently in a smart environment. The platform can be integrated with any system to provide an end-to-end solution and it offers all functions, including electronic documents, for a commodity exchange platform with its CRM to create and manage your supply chain network. 

 

Set Up and Registration Process:

For the registration process, the best advice would be to go for step-by-step implementation. You are required to register yourself on the Timber Exchange platform. Once you have deployed the platform, you can automatically streamline all data from both the buyer and the supplier side. 

If you still do not know where to start from, don’t hesitate to reach us directly at www.centersource.io.

Transaction Costs in International Trade and Logistics

 Complexity of International Trade and Logistics

 

International trade and logistics are extraordinarily complex to administer and execute. Different countries and regions have differences in policy that companies must adhere to, whilst different customers require different services. There is a huge amount of information needed by a variety of people during the process of making deals that have to be coordinated and communicated. Prices and volumes need to be agreed upon, freight has to be arranged, trade partners have to create and approve documents, check quality of products and provide customer service. For someone not familiar with the fields of international trade and logistics, it may appear as an endless chain of events without any proper structure or standard procedures to apply - which is, to some extent, true in some supply chains.

 

What are Transaction Costs?

 

Transaction costs are costs that appear in relation to an economical exchange and are very hard to accurately quantify. In the context of international trade and how businesses typically execute it, the transaction costs are considerable between the stages of business inquiry until the goods have arrived at the place of delivery. A buyer, for example needs to invest time and effort to find a good product and manage all the previously mentioned steps, which requires resources and therefore money. In big companies with many different shipments ongoing simultaneously, it regularly happens that crucial people from both buying and selling sides are absent for various reasons. This is a great problem that comes with huge transaction costs when a colleague has to pick up the work of someone else: reading in old emails, tracing documentation amendments and simply trying to put the pieces together.

 

Keeping Track and Increasing Accountability

 

In the Centersource supply chain collaboration platform all trade partners and colleagues are working in the same shared workspace which provides a good foundation for less transaction costs. Staff can pick up the work from absent colleagues seamlessly, and track everyone's responsibilities in different deals. Most of all the check calls will be unnecessary since tracking information and trade related documents are managed in the same workspace. The workspace helps you and your trade partners to ensure high quality in the trading process with tools to enhance supply chain visibility, accountability and transparency - if anyone forgets a deadline the system will tell you, if any deal milestone is closing the system will remind you.

Centersource Technologies 

Website: https://www.centersource.io/   

Phone: +46855765992