Trio latch on to INTTRA as sea-freight service provider
Three key European forwarders and logistics service providers (LSPs) with a large presence in Asia have chosen a United States-based e-commerce company to help increase global visibility for the movement and pricing of their sea-freight services.
Swiss-based forwarders Danzas and Panalpina have linked with Germany's Schenker to select INTTRA, a New Jersey-based company which offers a neutral Web-based portal for sea transport services.
As the trio moved a combined 1.6 million teu (20 ft equivalent units) of sea freight last year, their signing is seen as a major boost for the hi-tech LSP and its product, INTTRA-Link.
'INTTRA focuses on the part of the logistics supply chain that is most inefficient, the part that follows after contract and spot-rate negotiation,' Panalpina's chief operating officer for sea freight, Joerg Eggenberger, told the Freight & Shipping Post from the company's Basel headquarters.
'It also allows [LSPs] such as Panalpina to include non-vessel owning common carrier activities.
'INTTRA-Link will integrate directly with our internal domestic systems which allow us to directly connect with the systems of INTTRA's participating carriers.
'This in turn creates efficiencies for Panalpina and our customers.'
INTTRA is sponsored by a group of six European container-shipping lines, many of them - such as Denmark's Maersk Sealand, Anglo-Dutch conglomerate P&O Nedlloyd and Germany's Hapag Lloyd - are the cream of the industry and have a huge global presence.
Its services allow participants in the trade supply chain, including shippers, freight-forwarders, third-party LSPs, brokers, importers and other industry portals, to manage the booking and tracking of cargo across several shipping lines in a single integrated process.
'We believe that the freight industry needs further standardisation to simplify all the processes involved,' said Karsten Keller, vice-president of Schenker's e-business unit.
'For ocean freight, INTTRA is one of the portals being supported by the major carriers and customers who all share the same objective.'
According to Mr Keller, reliable, up-to-date tracking information is the one thing his customers, the shippers, have come to demand.
In part, this is the result of the global transport industry becoming increasingly multi-modal as service providers try to find on-the-ground answers to complex sourcing demands.
'As shipments become more global, go over multiple tiers [carriers, truckers, service providers, etc], and are more demanding of on-time delivery than before, customers have to know where their shipments are,' Mr Keller said.
And they want this information in a single format that is easy to understand.
'Integrated networks, one face to the customer, and management of the supply chain are the most often requested services,' he said.
Schenker initially will use the INTTRA portal to access more tracking information.
Later, it will begin utilising the portal's booking service.
'We believe the industry is best served by one portal and we have selected INTTRA because it is the leading, open and neutral industry-backed portal,' Mr Eggenberger said.
'We hope that our selection will encourage other LSPs, shippers and carriers to join INTTRA, which is a non-exclusive portal.'
