Hapag's 100,000 reefer containers turn "smart"

Hapag-Lloyd reached the milestone of equipping 100,000 reefers with a monitoring device, a target that was set with the start of the rollout in 2020. "With this, Hapag-Lloyd has made a very large part of its reefer fleet smart," says an official release.

When the roll-out started, Hapag-Lloyd had a fleet of 93,000 reefers. Thanks to the increase of reefer business, the inventory has grown to 149,000 reefer containers today, the release added.

"I am really proud of how our colleagues on site have been doing their job," says Andrea Schöning, Senior Director, Container Steering, Hapag-Lloyd. "In particular, over the recent months, they have pushed our depots installing the monitoring devices. While we continue to install in the field, finding the remaining ones in the fleet is getting trickier and trickier. We target to exceed the 90 percent fleet installation mark during the upcoming construction phase of new reefer containers."

New-built containers are being equipped with tracking devices directly upon completion in the factory, and the containers in the fleet are equipped during the regular Pre-Trip- Inspection (PTI) process by depots. "Biggest installation locations are Hapag-Lloyd's own reefer depot in Rotterdam with more than 12,000 installations since start of the rollout, followed by Belgian Container Maintenance in Antwerp (4,700 installations) and Tercon Terminal de Contenedores in Guayaquil, Ecuador (4,300 installations)."

Hapag is already using the data from 100,000 reefers to monitor the fleet for any incidents that may damage the cargo such as wrong temperature setpoints or technical alarms. "Through this, our local teams handle up to 2,000 incidents every single week to reduce cargo claims and improve transport quality."

The Hapag-Lloyd LIVE commercial product usage is scaling up, the release said. In February 2023 alone, customers purchased the service for more than 6,000 reefer containers, and "we forecast for 2023 full year to be able to sell it on more than 50,000 units. It has proven to be a unique selling point for our reefer customers, keeping us ahead of competitors.By August 2023, the company plans to have 90 percent of its reefer containers equipped with monitoring systems. By the end of the year, all Hapag-Lloyd reefer boxes will be smart."

Hapag-Lloyd has set itself the goal of making all of its containers smart including its 1.6 million dry containers. The installation of tracking devices on dry containers began at the end of last summer and is currently underway in depots around the world. Hapag expects to launch a first customer product for standard boxes this year and to have the majority of its containers worldwide equipped with tracking devices by the end of 2023.

"By having equipped the lion’s share of our reefer fleet and starting mass installations on the dry fleet, we have made a large step towards creating the world’s smartest container fleet," says Olaf Habert, Director, Container Applications, Hapag-Lloyd. "Now it’s time to also bring our use cases to the next level."