Decarbonizing the Supply Chain One Container at a time

Decarbonizing supply chains is an important goal for shippers, ocean liners, and transporters, as it can help to reduce their environmental impact and improve their sustainability. One key area where these parties can focus on reducing their carbon footprint is by making better use of empty ocean containers. These containers are a crucial component of the global shipping industry, but they are often underutilized or misused and left sitting idle at ports, depots and yards for long periods of time. Over 50% of the time inland ocean containers are empty and not in transit.

One big way that shippers can improve the use of empty ocean containers is by reusing them outside of the ports for exporters. This is called street turns or container triangulation within the industry. The reuse of empty import containers for export moves.

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Street turns can help to reduce the need for empty containers to be pulled from ports or staged via rail. In a country where the import side far outweighs the export side, the needed empty containers to suffice the exporters bookings with their trucking partners is there. The large issue is connecting the import side with the export side and creating these beneficial transactions outside of port. This can be solved with easy to use technology, integrations, data sharing and cooperation. No easy ask or task, but what we at Qualle are working to help tackle.

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In addition by reusing empty containers outside of ports - shippers, transporters and ocean liners can reduce the number of empty containers that need to be transported back to the ports where they will sit and take up space.

At the height of the pandemic and even now almost every depot and terminal in the US was filled to the brim with empty containers. This caused huge issues in terms of container flow, operations, and congestions that reverberated across the entire supply chain and ultimately to the consumer shelves. Pushing more loaded exports back to ports and less empty containers helps alleviate a lot of this and will ultimately allow the ocean liners to scale back the number of needed containers in circulation to execute their customers needs. This will lower the carbon output of our ports, terminals, and waiting trucks.

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Another way that ocean liners can improve the use of empty ocean containers is by selling them off in the private market for storage or even as housing. By identifying older containers in markets and removing them from circulation this can help extend their shelf lives in secondary markets and make better reuse of them for good cause. When too many containers are in circulation you are left with many wasteful moves, increased empty mileage and increased co2 emission outputs.

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Overall, there are many ways that shippers can focus on decarbonizing their supply chains by making better use of empty ocean containers. By reusing containers more efficiently, using them for other purposes in private markets, and reducing the number of empty containers in circulation, shippers, ocean liners, and transporters can help to reduce their environmental impact and improve their sustainability.

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It's also important to note that, by implementing these practices, the companies can also benefit from cost savings, which can be another incentive for them to focus on decarbonizing their supply chain. So, it's a win-win situation for companies and the environment.

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Your street turn and empty container repositioning solution,

- Qualle