Exchange May Cut Ocean Shipping Costs

Computerworld - Nine ocean carriers are teaming with a California technology start-up to launch an online venture to make the process of shipping containers across the ocean easier and cheaper.

Tentatively named the Global Transportation Network (GTN), the venture will launch early next year.

Details of the arrangement haven't been released.

"This will fundamentally change the process of getting goods around the world," the carriers said in a statement. "Our common objective is to leverage this Internet platform and drive superior customer service and lower transaction costs for both customers and providers."

The shipping companies have signed on with Tradiant Inc., a company in Alameda, Calif., that makes software to handle cargo booking, tracking and tracing.

Using the GTN, customers will be able to book freight, prepare documentation, track shipments and check schedules, replacing manual, paper-based processes.

Kevin Higgins, director of global logistics at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville, Ark., said the exchange will help his company "greatly improve operational efficiencies for us and our carriers."

But transportation analyst Donald Broughton at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis, said that although the Web may help speed up internal business processes, it does nothing to move freight faster.

"The faster goods are moving, the better," he said. "The slower the goods move, the less value you add to a business. These are ocean carriers—the railroads of the ocean. The value added by Web-enabling [business processes] is not as significant as [finding ways] to move goods faster."

Higgins acknowledged that the GTN won't necessarily move his goods faster. However, he said that's not what he views as the value of the exchange.

"It's about decision-making on the front end," he said.

Other transportation sectors, such as trucking and railroads, have also created Web-based exchanges for a similar purpose.

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