Maersk Line has announced the official start-up of its Remote Container Management (RCM) service to provide visibility on reefers’ location and internal atmospheric conditions globally. Maersk expects an increase in its traditional perishable reefer volumes.
With RCM, both customers and Maersk Line have complete access to the reefer’s current location, temperature and atmospheric conditions inside as well as the power status, at all times and no matter where it may be in the world.
The service will be introduced on July 24, and it will include the ability for Maersk Line’s RCM staff to manage the container, either remotely or through notifications to local technicians if a hands-on fix is required.
The technology behind RCM it is relatively simple. A GPS, a modem and a SIM card on all 270,000 of Maersk’s refrigerated reefers. This enables location, temperature, humidity and power status readings to be continuously collected and stored. That information then reaches customers and RCM global support teams via satellite transmitters on 400 of Maersk Line’s owned and chartered ships.
“The old days of waiting, hoping and reacting are over. Our customers can now monitor and make decisions about their supply chain as their cargo moves, as well as use the data to study and improve their entire supply chain. Particularly for our customers with very sensitive, higher value refrigerated cargo, RCM significantly raises the total value proposition of refrigerated container trade,” Vincent Clerc, Chief Commercial Officer for Maersk Line, said.
In the first six months of 2017, RCM has alerted Maersk Line to more than 4,500 incorrect temperature settings on customers’ reefers, the shipping company says.
