Press Releases
04/19/2004
Cargo Tracking System Eyed by Feds
System used by Blount Island shipper could enhance security
Tony Quesada
Staff Writer
JACKSONVILLE -- The technology behind a sophisticated cargo container tracking system called the Horizon System, used by a shipping company operating at the Jacksonville Port Authority's Blount Island Marine Terminal, could lead to a pilot project aimed at improving the commercial efficiency and security of such cargo coming to the United States.
The Horizon System is a vast global network that accepts information feeds from Horizon Lines, rail and other transportation networks associated with the shipping cycle of any cargo container. The result is a system that posts events in that cycle in real time, beginning with the shipment's booking.
Charlotte, N.C.-based Horizon Lines and its information technology subsidiary, Dallas-based Horizon Services Group, are trying to attract interest and support for a possible demonstration project that would involve integrating information from other carriers with the Horizon System to capture its potential for enhancing cargo security, said Duncan Wright, senior manager of strategic development for Horizon Services Group. The company would likely seek federal assistance on the order of a few hundred thousand dollars, Wright said.
"This is the most powerful commercial system in the market," Wright said. "It seems like this should have some kind of value for security."
U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw, a Republican from Jacksonville, agrees.
"Such an initiative will give ports early access to what ships are transporting and whether any cargo needs a closer inspection," said Crenshaw, who reviewed Horizon's proposal as part of a tour of the port. "I believe this program is the first of many steps in adding additional security to our port system."
Crenshaw -- who was accompanied on his tour of the port by U.S. Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., chairman of the House Transportation and Treasury Appropriations Subcommittee -- said such a pilot project could enhance container security while streamlining the flow of containers and other cargo through U.S. ports.
"Better coordination, better tracking, better monitoring of cargo coming into the United States will do much to advance our homeland security," Crenshaw said.
Istook said the United States has been imposing more information system requirements on shippers to let them know that "to do business with America they need to be willing to invest in these types of systems."
The Horizon System, which is made available to Horizon Lines' customers as a value-added service, traces its origins back to CSX Transportation's Sealand unit, which was split into two shipping lines and sold separately. One of those lines became Horizon Lines. It retained the information technology of the original company -- which had invested about $100 million in developing what became the Horizon System -- and spun off Horizon Services Group to create a separate brand for it, Wright said.
Today 12,000 shippers, including 250 Fortune 400 companies, access the Horizon System through Horizon Services Group's Web-based interface called NetCaptain.
Wright said NetCaptain amounts to "a free traffic management logistics system that saves [customers] from having to invest in logistics software and automates many of the processes of doing business with us."
Global food marketer AJC International is a NetCaptain user that went from skeptic to fan after becoming familiar with its capabilities.
"When NetCaptain started, we were a little wary," said Karen Jones, operations manager for AJC International, which ships on average 30 to 35 containers a week through the Jacksonville Port Authority on Horizon Lines. "We had been making bookings by phone for a long time. And we felt that if we got the right customer rep, the system couldn't beat that. Horizon proved us wrong."
Jones said AJC ships more of its food heading to San Juan, Puerto Rico, through Jacksonville than through any other port and the information and reports available through NetCaptain allow her team to save time and money.
"It gives us the information we want -- information that would have taken a lot of time to get, if at all," she said. "It gives us a nice clean report to help us manage our business."
Currently, the system is available only to Horizon Lines customers, but Wright said Horizon Services Group hopes to change that and is looking at two opportunities to expand the system. One is by partnering with other shipping lines to offer features similar to NetCaptain's to their customers through separate user interfaces with different names.
The other is by using the system's ability to capture events in the shipping cycle for security initiatives with federal government and with large companies who are looking to make their supply chains more secure.
Wright described Horizon Services Group's presentation to Crenshaw and Istook at Blount Island as an opportunity to educate the congressmen about the system's potential to strengthen U.S. port security.
"It's too important a system to leave sitting on the bench," Wright said.
Wright said it's important to note that although making the best use of the Horizon System does require carriers to modify some of their procedures to allow shipping events to be captured, gathering the data doesn't slow commerce. And because of that, he said, improving security need not slow commerce either.
"What slows down shipping is when you have to stop and look at every container," Wright said. "One of our main points is that, at the end of the day, you can't have too much data."
