Taking advantage of rail freight brings outstanding benefits to shippers, including cost savings, security, and improved sustainability. Still, in the past, rail visibility has impeded the use of this transportation mode as part of an effective intermodal strategy.

Post-pandemic, shippers have realized the essential nature of end-to-end container visibility as a strategy to build supply chain resiliency. Visibility gives them a window into freight movements, the ability to respond to exceptions immediately, savings on expensive fees, and the power to become proactive. Shippers with total supply chain visibility are empowered with ongoing operational efficiency gains. 

While critical to efficient supply chains, visibility must exist across all modes to be genuinely effective. A gap in visibility could result in negating efficiencies gained elsewhere. Rail container tracking brings visibility to where there was once a void and ensures intermodal shipping is efficient from a container’s departure until reaching its destination. 

Vizion API’s rail tracker solution empowers shippers to enhance their container tracking to become genuinely end-to-end. 

End-to-End Container Visibility: A Must-Have in a Complex Logistics Environment

End-to-end container visibility gives shippers power over an increasingly complex logistics landscape, and with that power comes unprecedented efficiency gains. Shippers with total end-to-end visibility keep their containers moving, anticipating potential exceptions, keeping them from sitting in ports, terminals, and rail yards, and efficiently collaborating with supply chain stakeholders.

The logistics industry hasn’t always had complete end-to-end visibility, and most shippers only had access to the blue dot on a screen, not the complete information needed to be effective. Not all visibility solutions are equal, and shippers often undertook complicated and expensive internal software solutions that didn’t work with every carrier or standardize their container milestones.

Rail has been tremendously problematic as a void in which containers disappear until reaching the next mode. Once a container entered the rail yard, visibility ended. If a derailment happened, the shipper might not know for hours or longer. Employees had to call for updates that might or might not be correct.

Rail Tracking: The Key to End-to-End Visibility

Container rail tracking combines car location messages (CLM), automated equipment identification (AEI), and Global Positioning System (GPS) to generate comprehensive information. This information includes end-to-end visibility with the locations and ETAs of containers. Additionally, shippers receive event notifications, data regarding performance, notifications when a container enters or departs a rail yard, and car information and health alerts.

The power to track containers moving via rail compliments other tracking methods like ocean and truck, making the information available to shippers complete. They are empowered to ascertain container movements across the entire supply chain and have the next leg of the journey ready at the right time. When the container arrives at the rail yard, tracking is handed off from the truck to the train and back at the destination yard. 

With rail visibility, shippers gain the power to up their customer service game, effectively collaborate, and keep their containers moving. They understand their supply chain’s performance, know their KPIs, mitigate expensive demurrage and detention fees, and react immediately to exceptions. Collaboration with supply chain stakeholders becomes effective and efficient when each has access to the same information immediately via push notifications.

 Shippers also gain the ability to become more efficient with each container they move by analyzing the data from past logistics. Knowing what has gone right or wrong in the past or which carriers have out or underperformed, they perform better with each shipment.

Leveraging True End-to-End Visibility Through Rail Tracking

Shippers with access to rail tracking gain the power of efficient route planning and optimization. They utilize a now complete picture of their supply chain to know what has been the most effective in the past and see the performance of routes in real-time, effectively learning how to route future containers for the fastest and most cost-effective deliveries.

As their containers are en route, shippers with real-time rail visibility can react immediately to exceptions that might slow their shipments, making adjustments if necessary. They know when their containers will reach the yard, enabling scheduling for a truck to move the freight as it enters the yard. With tracking, containers aren’t left sitting, incurring fees and potentially causing disruptions to subsequent movements that compound upon themselves.

Rail tracking mitigates expensive demurrage fees that accumulate anytime a container sits. There are no costly last-minute arrangements to move a container when ETAs are known and lead times reduced. The entire journey becomes controllable, and costs are mitigated.

End-to-End Visibility Ensures Maximum Performance

Reactivity improves with end-to-end visibility, but more importantly, shippers gain the power of proactive planning when it is paired with integrated and standardized data streams. They can use new insight into their supply chain weak points to modify operations sooner with the actionable data generated.

Predictive analytics give shippers the power of foresight, and predictions of potentially disruptive events based on past data become possible. They can modify routes before the projections become a reality.

As software analytics continue to learn, efficiency gains continue to grow.

Optimized Operational Efficiency Through End-to-End Visibility

Efficiency gains for shippers have been challenging to come by in the past, only happening in the few instances where supply chain information avails itself to foster actionable insights. End-to-end visibility opens up all operations to consideration, allowing shippers to see their effectiveness genuinely and act now. Their ability expands to make operational decisions quickly and confidently.

Maximum Effectiveness for Minimized Spend

Making use of true end-to-end visibility, shippers bolster their supply chain decision-making. They quickly spot redundancies within the supply chain, reveal carrier issues, and discover lag points. With these new insights, supply chain links may be restructured for optimal effectiveness and efficiency, ultimately reducing transportation budgets and ensuring delighted customers. 

Integrating Rail Tracking with Vizion API for Seamless End-to-End Visibility

Vizion API offers the rail tracking solution that shippers turn to for total end-to-end visibility. As an API, Vizion API is plug-and-play with the shipper’s existing tech stack and is compatible with other tracking modules.

There are no costs for internal software development when deploying an API, and rollout happens quickly due to the ease of integration with the shipper’s existing supply chain management systems. Those current systems have become more effective due to integration and realizing true end-to-end visibility. 

A unified platform for comprehensive container tracking eliminates the visibility void that might negate the advantages of tracking containers on sea and roads. The entire supply chain is made knowable, and the benefits of intermodal shipping are realized, including cost-cutting, container safety, and sustainability improvement.

With a complete view of their supply chain, shippers can realize continual operational improvements, new savings, better routes, and more efficient container movements. 

True End to End Container Visibility Changes the Game for Shippers

When shippers gain the ability to see across their entire supply chain, continuous improvement becomes possible, containers move faster, transportation budgets fall, collaboration improves, and disruptive events are better managed. Most importantly, customer service tremendously improves. 

Shippers take full advantage of intermodal freight shipping and the benefits of cost savings, safety, and improved sustainability by eliminating the visibility void that was once rail. Insights become truly actionable, prompting efficiency gains from decisions made quickly and with certainty.

Vizion API is an easily integrated and deployed API that provides shippers and stakeholders with real-time event notifications, standardized milestone data, ETAs, predictive analytics, and gap-free container tracking. Last free dates at rail yards and available for pickup events through Vizion API save shippers considerable demurrage charges that hurt the bottom line. 

Using Vizion API’s ocean and rail tracking, shippers optimize their operations across their entire global supply chains. 

‍Book a demo with Vizion API today to see what true end-to-end visibility looks like.