Container carriers P&O Nedlloyd, Maersk Sealand, Hamburg S"ud, MSC Mediterranean Shipping and CMA CGM have joined forces to create a neutral transportation portal on the Internet. The portal is called INTTRA, symbolising among other things international trade and transportation, says P&O Nedlloyd SA MD, Nigel Pusey.
"The portal enables international transportation users to manage shipping transactions through one common platform," says Pusey.
"Market research conducted among a range of international companies pointed to a clear demand for more visibility, greater standardisation and more accurate data along the shipping supply chain. The goal for INTTRA is to accommodate these requirements by offering powerful 'one-stop-shopping` for customers of the global container transport industry. INTTRA will provide access to multi-carrier scheduling, booking and cargo tracking.
"We believe this initiative is breaking new ground for our industry, which will create significant momentum in the application of new technologies to enhance the overall shipping process. More importantly for us, however, is that it will ensure P&O Nedlloyd remains at the forefront in the application of new technology to our business.
"In this initiative, as well as in all other current business and e-commerce/Internet activities, we will retain our own separate corporate identity. Each of the participating carriers will continue development of its own proprietary system and we will remain competitors in the market place - where service level and operating excellence will be more transparent as a result of the Internet."
Development of the shipping portal began early this year. The first version will provide transportation users with a single point of entry for tracking cargo movements with multiple carriers.
Additional planned services are access to scheduling, booking requests, booking cargo across several carriers and proactive event notification. These and further business applications will be launched on a continuous basis. Implementation of the portal is subject to regulatory approval.
For further information, visit www.inttra.com.
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