Containers overboard

Cebu has changed a wee bit since the 1970s when I was putting together finance for the Atlas copper mine on the island! I enjoyed a long look at the mine on Google Earth last night.
Based in Manila, we never sailed that far South but the navigation hazards for Magellan must have been considerable.
 
newtothis said:
One of the big carriers is in the process of putting trackers on all of its boxes. This is not being done for the ones that go awol, but for more prosaic logistics management reasons, but may also lead to lost boxes being spotted.
On the other hand, while it might happen in busy coastal waters, I'm not so sure anyone is going to send a salvage tug out to the mid-Pacific to pick up floating boxes.
Click to expand...

Smart container fleet predicted to expand eight-fold over the next five years - Splash247
 
newtothis said:
One of the big carriers is in the process of putting trackers on all of its boxes. This is not being done for the ones that go awol, but for more prosaic logistics management reasons, but may also lead to lost boxes being spotted.
On the other hand, while it might happen in busy coastal waters, I'm not so sure anyone is going to send a salvage tug out to the mid-Pacific to pick up floating boxes.
Click to expand...
Could it be like AIS for containers?
 
I suspect that, as is often the case with IT, there’s less to this than meets the eye!

I was involved with experiments with container tracking using simple Satcom C terminals around twenty years ago; the problems were of course cost, durability, battery life and the ability of the aerial to “see” the satellites when, as is the case for 90% of a container’s life, another box is sitting on top of it!

I think the “Telematics” system that Hapag are fitting uses not satellites but cell phone systems, just like the Telematics box that some motor insurers want to fit in your car. In which case, useless at sea, but what you want for container tracking because almost all containers go missing on land!
 
Kukri said:
I suspect that, as is often the case with IT, there’s less to this than meets the eye!

I was involved with experiments with container tracking using simple Satcom C terminals around twenty years ago; the problems were of course cost, durability, battery life and the ability of the aerial to “see” the satellites when, as is the case for 90% of a container’s life, another box is sitting on top of it!

I think the “Telematics” system that Hapag are fitting uses not satellites but cell phone systems, just like the Telematics box that some motor insurers want to fit in your car. In which case, useless at sea, but what you want for container tracking because almost all containers go missing on land!
Click to expand...
Hapag says its system will work at sea by linking through the ship's comms. But most customers aren't that concerned about where a box is on the ocean. It's knowing where it is being held up on land that is of interest.
 
Resuscitating this bit of semi-ancient history only because thems what count 'em have put out the latest figures.
Only 661 boxes in the briny in 2022, or 0.00026% of all those shipped.
This is the lowest number since records began in 2008.
Risk to sailors is now less than that of Orcas, I'd say.
 
This is horribly anecdotal and as with all the best statements of fact it starts with "a friend of a friend who's in the business said..." that in some ports around the world, for a small cash arrangement, the number of containers can be miscounted, or 'phantom' containers loaded on board - the loss of which is then claimed for on insurance.

True or not? Who knows. But even if it happens once its one 'lost' container that isn't floating about somewhere.
 
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