New reefers promise faster, more accurate cold chain monitoring

Lara L. Sowinski, Cool Cargoes editor | Mar 06, 2016 10:30AM EST

Despite a weakened global ocean shipping market, carriers continue to invest in the refrigerated sector. Maersk Line, which boasts the largest containerized reefer fleet with 20 percent of the global market, purchased 30,000 additional units in 2015 alone, and its competitors are making sizable investments of their own.

Given that a new refrigerated container costs on average between $17,000 and $18,000, aside from the additional maintenance, repair and costs associated with seasonal fluctuations in demand and repositioning, it is apparent that Maersk Line and other carriers are bullish on the future of reefer shipping and ready to capitalize on it.

At the same time, controlled atmosphere and other innovative technologies are helping capture new product sectors for the ocean reefer market, especially temperature-controlled pharmaceuticals, which have historically moved almost exclusively by air cargo. Furthermore, ocean carriers are demonstrating that state-of-the-art equipment can keep cargo fresher and stable over long voyages.

Reefer containers are also getting a lot smarter.

Michel Fallah, founder and CEO of TRAXENS, was inspired to create a container tracking solution for mass deployment following a conversation years ago with CMA CGM’s founder Jacques Saade, who told him of the difficulties related to tracking a container around the world.

“TRAXENS was founded in 2012 with a bit of seed capital, a bit of investment from CMA CGM, and the winnings from an innovation prize,” said Tim Baker, the company’s director of marketing and communications.

The problem confronting Fallah was that all containers in the fleet needed to be smart, not just some. And it must be a low-cost technology with a very long battery life, because while reefer containers are powered, dry containers are not, Baker said.

About a year ago, TRAXENS “came out of stealth mode,” Baker said. In addition, a significant “vote of confidence” from CMA CGM was influential in helping bring the technology to the commercial market.

Specifically, the CMA CGM Bougainville, an 18,000-TEU vessel inaugurated last October by French President Francois Hollande, is the first ship in the world using TRAXENS’ technology.

Rather than attaching tracking devices to containers and removing them after a voyage, or only focusing on high-value cargoes, TRAXENS’ hardware is affixed permanently inside the container during the manufacturing phase, Baker explained. There are different models, depending on whether the container is a reefer or dry, while gensets too have their own model.

“We also sell the data that comes from the devices,” Baker said.

Aside from building the technology into the box at the beginning, a second requirement during the design of TRAXENS was that it remained affordable.

According to Baker, there was an assumption that only shippers of high-value cargo would pay for such a solution; therefore, many manufacturers didn’t even try to bring a more affordable solution to the market.

“This was faulty logic that kept the technology priced very high for a long time,” he said.

Another challenge was that “the people that owned the containers were not the ones who needed the data the most. There was no benefit for the shipping line to equip their containers with this technology. They didn’t need the data; it was their end customers who needed it.”

TRAXENS created a business model to address that challenge, “basically co-investing and sharing profit from the business so that now it makes sense for the ocean carrier to make the investment,” Baker said.

While CMA CGM is the first carrier to take the plunge, TRAXENS is hoping other ship lines will soon follow.

“We envision this working as just another way to book a container. For instance, do you want a 20-foot, a 40-foot, or a 40-foot smart? And if you want a 40-foot smart, you order a (TRAXENS data) subscription for that trip,” Baker said. “This model removes the logistics and hassle of putting on and taking off devices and so on. You simply order a smart container and the data tracking subscription that goes with it. We’ve removed the hassle and cut out unnecessary logistics — and costs.”

Container manufacturers are also being targeted by TRAXENS. Baker said the company is working with “all of them, really” to start incorporating the technology into their reefers and dry containers.

While the TRAXENS hardware is designed for inclusion during the manufacture of the container, it can also be added on afterward. Baker expects to see a lot of this type of retrofitting as the industry moves quickly to adopt smart containers.

“Each smart container has the potential of using a cell connection,” Baker said. But, it also has another communication method, which is the proprietary technology that we’ve developed. It allows communication to go from container to container, and from containers to gateways, using an extremely low amount of energy.

“In the middle of the ocean, the containers can talk among themselves. Even when they’re in the bottom of the hold where you typically cannot access anything, the signals hop from container to container, then hop right into the tower on the container ship where we can hook into the satellite connection and communicate anywhere along the voyage,” Baker said.

There’s not much communication during the sea voyage unless something happens to trigger an alert, such as a reefer container’s temperature going out of spec.

“In that case, we can get that information and send a real-time alert, even if it’s under deck, to anywhere in the world using the support of satellite infrastructure,” Baker said. “To keep costs down, however, we do not send data up to the cloud unless the platform decides there is a problem. It’s a smart container. It only communicates when it needs to.”

The design keeps battery usage to a minimum as well. “Everything we do is intended to cut costs, not cut corners,” Baker said.

Cargo security and monitoring are also part of the solution.

“We know if something happens with the container; if it stops or gets a sizable bump or shock. We also know if there’s a deviation from the route it should be taking. The technology allows us to control the reefer remotely. It’s two-way communication, and it allows us to take parameters from anywhere in the world right down to the bottom of the hold if necessary.”

The long battery life and low power requirements mean the container — either reefer or dry — can be tracked even when it’s empty.

“This feature is very attractive for shipping lines. They want to know where their equipment is, especially the high-value reefer containers. And we can continue communicating with the container even without the container being powered up.”

As for the lifespan, Baker said for dry containers with no power, “we aim for a minimum of three years, but as the technology evolves, we are aiming to keep the battery going throughout the useful life of a container, which is about 10 years. And because reefer containers are powered up so often, a battery life of 10 years is much more achievable.”

The relatively new technology hasn’t encountered any major snafus, Baker said. “The large volumes (of the technology) are really just rolling out this year. Right now, it’s mostly in a pilot stage.”

Aside from the buy-in from CMA CGM, the response from other shipping lines is also promising, according to Baker, who believes that once carriers make a move to adopt the technology, they’ll go for it quickly because they will see an advantage of having all of their containers equipped with TRAXENS.

“It’s early yet, but we’re optimistic that a number of shipping lines will go for this, and they’ll go for it in very big quantities, very quickly,” Baker said.

He’s confident that 2016 will emerge as the turning point. “We hope that some day history will say that this is when it all started. Just 60 years after the dumb container started, the smart container started.”

As for the future adoption timeline, Baker thinks, “that within 10 years all containers will be smart, and the idea of having a dumb metal box will be as appropriate as having a non-smart mobile phone. It just won’t exist anymore.”