An empty container takes the exact time and effort to be shipped as a full container. Every carrier has to manage the number of containers on every ship so that every container is full when it is shipped. Unfortunately, it does not happen!
When you ship an empty container, the cost of shipping is the same as full containers. It is a big headache for carriers who need to reposition their empty container because it burns a huge amount of money, and the carriers should pay for it themselves. Empty container tracking can be a way to keep track of the empty containers while they are going for repositioning.
What Is Empty Container Repositioning?
The ideal world is where every container is full and used for shipping goods. But it is only about the ideal world! Not the real one! Millions of dollars, or let’s say: up to 20 billion dollars, are wasted every year just because of a lack of balance in empty containers in the ports. This number is due to a lot of reasons; let’s see what they are:
Empty Container Repositioning: What Causes it?
The global shipping industry is in trouble because of a huge imbalance between importing and exporting ships. Ports that have too many empty containers will eventually run out, leading to bottlenecks at these points. This can cause delays for cargo owners and higher transportation costs. The most common container imbalances happen among different regions, such as West vs. Asia.
Trade imbalances can cause serious disruptions to the economy. When there is an importing country’s surplus and exporting country’s deficit, ports experience bottlenecks because not enough resources are available for both sides of the trade. This issue becomes more prevalent with each passing year as globalization grows exponentially day by day which makes solving these problems increasingly difficult! Anyway, there are other reasons for container repositioning! For example, Time Pressure!
Time Pressure and Empty Containers
Carriers under time pressure must send empty containers as fast as possible to export ports in order to keep up with demand. This was seen during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 and 2021 when consumers shifted spending from services, which had higher labor costs than goods that could be produced at home or by hand without much effort.
As a result, there were increased imports causing carriers to have an urgent need for more shipping space available locally – leading them to prioritize sending their already stocked ships towards international destinations rather than domestic ones.
Carriers can’t afford to have any downtime when it comes down to their ability to maintain exports at all-time highs. If there’s too much demand for export goods in one region, then they’ve got to guarantee that if a ship arrives with new containers—the empty ones will be sent right off again so fast you might think the shipping company has an Inspired agency partnership!
Empty Container Tracking
After all these explanations, you can understand how important are empty containers. It is not the matter of goods shipped with containers; instead, the container itself is what matters the most. As the logistics industry is experiencing a lot of challenges regarding time management and reliable scheduling, it is more important than ever to track empty containers and stay tuned about every new status of the empty container. Visiwise Dashboard is here to help with Empty Container Tracking.
So the reason why empty containers are important is obvious, but tracking them is another challenge. The normal method for tracking empty containers is exactly the same as full containers. You need the container number to enter in shipping lines’ websites and check if there is any news about them, but, Visiwise is another option to use for tracking empty containers.
Empty Container Tracking with Visiwise
Using Visiwise Dashboard for tracking cargo and containers saves your time and gives you more than what you expect. There is no difference between empty containers and full containers on Visiwise, so the only thing you need is the container number and the name of the shipping line. You can simply track your empty container, and Visiwise gives you the most accurate data about it.
Sometimes, you are counting down the days to see your empty container at the final destination. You may need the ETA and any changes that happen to it. In order to have all the information and changes at one glance, you can track your empty container with Visiwise Dashboard and use its features such as notification and ETA history.
