Last year we introduced ocean freight Lane Assessments in Validaide, and we're very excited to now implement important enhancements to our ocean freight functionality.
This means our customers can now use Validaide to create Lane Assessments across all modalities based on the same data-driven approach. Each Lane is assessed on factors such as temperature exposure, quality and security, based on the capabilities of all transport suppliers and additional data sources such the climate data.
Based on customer feedback we have implemented the following new features for ocean freight:
- Visualization of ocean transport on Google Maps: Using an integration with SeaRoutes we can now determine the itinerary of ocean routes, including estimation of the transport duration and distance.
- Inland transport by barge and rail: Users can now add inland transport by barge or rail to their Lanes, including the assessment of the capabilities of inland terminals.
- Container Terminal Locations: we now define Container Terminals as Locations instead of Companies in our data model. As a consequence, forwarders can now request ocean carriers for information about the capabilities of the container terminals in their network.
- Updated Ocean Freight Checklist: in alignment with our Advisory Board we have made various changes to our Checklists for ocean carriers and container terminals.
- UN/LOCODEs for port identification: we have added a database of UN/LOCODES to Validaide, which can be used to document the port at which a container terminal is located. This can then also be used to define the origin and destination port for ocean steps.
As a next step, we will now create a complete database of ocean carriers, barge operators and container terminals in Validaide. We will also work closely with these companies to have the company and terminal capabilities defined on Validaide.
Each ocean carrier, barge operator or container terminal can create a profile with their capabilities free of charge, and easily share this with many leading forwarders on Validaide. This creates significant efficiencies and helps to ensure the reliable transportation of pharmaceuticals in accordance with regulatory guidelines.