The Drawbacks of Using a Single Data Source: How Inaccurate ETAs and Missing Container Milestones Can Impact Your Business

The Drawbacks of Using a Single Data Source: How Inaccurate ETAs and Missing Container Milestones Can Impact Your Business

If you are a freight forwarder, you know that your clients value transparency. However, transparency is not just making data available for your clients but making accurate data available. Many freight forwarders only get their data from carriers, which means they put all their eggs in one basket. But is this really the safest way to ensure the success of your supply chain processes?

Using carriers as your only source of data may pose some issues, as carriers’ core competency is not to provide data but to make sure goods are transported from A to B. Consequently, there are several drawbacks of using a single data source. It is often associated with inaccurate ETAs that constantly change, unreliable data flow such as missing container milestones, lack of historical data which makes it impossible to make predictions, and finally, difficult data maintenance due to costly and complex inhouse solutions to maintain a connection with multiple carriers.

At GateHouse Maritime, we provide an additional layer of information to make up for the lacking data from carriers, or should we say, to fill the gap in carrier data. Although we work with carrier data, we also fuse our vessel tracking and AIS data with our very own geofences to fill the gap in carrier data. In addition, we make predictions in terms of departures, arrivals, discharged and gated out events. This way, you know in advance when discharge and gate out events will take place, allowing you to plan accordingly and preventing you from making costly mistakes in your supply chain processes.