Detention fees, demurrage fees, and other related fees can drive up an organization's shipping costs in a way that is tough to swallow. Thankfully, these fees are not inevitable, and you can most often avoid them with the proper preparation. 

When it comes to mitigating and preventing shipping fees, nothing is more important than quality container tracking data. It's the key to helping you reduce shipping fees' impact on your bottom line. This blog looks at the value of quality container tracking data, the challenges of collecting it, and how VIZION can help. 

Why Data is the Fuel That Powers Modern Logistics 

Reliable shipping data informs you of a wide range of supply chain operations, such as when it's time to order more products or arrange pickup for your freight. The latter is key to preventing demurrage and detention fees. 

Carrier ETAs are wildly unreliable, meaning that you will need to determine your cargo's location and when it will arrive if you rely on these ETAs alone.  The lack of supply chain transparency that this creates can cause delays that directly lead to demurrage and detention fees. 

By providing timely and accurate container tracking data, container tracking solutions such as VIZION enable you to make informed decisions and plan to prevent delays and all of the various fees and other issues they cause. 

Challenges of Getting Quality Container Tracking Data 

Quality container tracking data is a vital resource for supply chain managers, but it can take time to come by. Collecting container tracking data manually is an incredibly costly and time-consuming process that is also prone to errors. Even if your organization can afford the staffing resources to track its shipments manually, human error will almost certainly rear its head and create issues. 

In other cases, you may find that container tracking data is easy to come by but not high-quality. Carrier ETAs are one obvious example of container tracking data that is easy to find but not all that valuable due to its unreliability. 

Supply chain managers need accurate, standardized, and timely container tracking data that is collected and delivered automatically. For years, this was little more than a pipe dream. Thanks to VIZION, quality container tracking data can be a more accessible resource. 

Keys to Container Tracking Data Quality 

Four keys determine the quality of container tracking data: 

Timely

Container tracking data needs to be as close to real-time as possible to offer much value. When scheduling port operations to prevent demurrage and detention fees, you don't need to know where your shipment was five days ago. Timeliness — with real-time container tracking data being the gold standard — is the first tenet of tracking data quality.

Accurate 

Inaccurate container tracking data does much more harm than good. You are bound to run into issues if you rely on erroneous data to manage your inventory, schedule port operations, or inform any other important decisions. Errors often created by manual data collection can be very costly.

Organized 

Data has to be analyzed before it can offer any insights, but most organizations are already dealing with a staggering amount of supply chain data. With proper data organization, gleaning insights from these mountains of raw data can be a possible task. 

Standardized 

Coordinating with various partners throughout your supply chain requires you to share a lot of data back and forth. If that data isn't standardized between parties, though, then communication issues are going to arise. What looks like an organized dataset to your organization may look like a jumbled mess to the partners you need to communicate with, making standardization the final tenet of container tracking data quality. 

KPIs to Track From Container Tracking Data 

Along with preventing demurrage and detention fees by helping you better plan port operations, container tracking data can also inform KPIs that will enable you to analyze the strength of your supply chain. Some of the top KPIs to track from container tracking data include: 

1. Vessel Schedule Reliability 
2. The Elapsed Time Between Shipping Instructions and Bill of Lading Issue
3. On-Time Shipment of Cargo
4. Port-to-Port Time Against Schedule  
5. Cargo Availability at the Destination Port 
6. Average US Inland Transit Times 
7. Port Dwell Times
8. Port Calls and Turnaround Times
9. Liner Shipping Connectivity
10. Port Cargo Handling Performance

Tracking KPIs such as these will enable you to score carriers with carrier scorecards and identify opportunities to improve the efficiency and reliability of your supply chain. 

Mitigate Fees with Quality Container Tracking Data From VIZION 

By providing accurate, organized, and standardized real-time container tracking data, VIZION enables organizations to prevent demurrage and detention fees and offer other supply chain boosting benefits. To enjoy all of the advantages of quality container tracking data, sign up for a VIZION demo today. Or, to learn more about container tracking data quality, feel free to check out our white paper on the importance of quality data in container shipping.