My name is Container 42, the smartest container on the planet

Innovation, creativity and digitalisation is in full flow within the shipping and freight industry..

The ubiquitous freight container has remained the same in terms of its design and structure and has not undergone much significant change in the last 50 odd years..

But in the recent past, it is being transformed quite dramatically..

Whether as a smart container or as an art form to create awareness or as a useful tool in society, the freight container is moving forward in leaps and bounds..

As of today, 23,047,993 TEUs are in circulation around the world.. That is 23 million+ TEUs..!!

Yet if a container or its cargo is damaged, stolen, delayed, lost at sea or in transit we do not have immediate visibility leading to loss of revenue and productivity, not to mention the goods itself..

This poses a major challenge and there is a strong and growing need for integrity and transparency in the supply chain.. This challenge can be overcome only if valuable, granular, near real-time, reliable and secure data is available to us at all times..

The Port of Rotterdam, one of the leading ports in the world, is the highest ranking container terminal in Europe with great ambitions to be the smartest port around..

In line with this, the Port of Rotterdam is taking the lead in the digital transformation of port and logistics and is experimenting with various projects involving digitalisation..

One such project is Container 42..

As a partner in this project, Intel have taken up the challenge to create the missing visibility.. The product development team at Intel have studied the key challenges logistics service providers face when implementing IoT, including interoperability, security, and connectivity..

Based on this study, they have developed the Intel® Connected Logistics Platform, a certified, ready-to-deploy and customizable platform consisting of smart tags, mobile and fixed Intel-based gateways, and a visual dashboard that provides condition and location monitoring of freight down to the individual item-level..

This study and planning led to the creation of Container 42..

Container 42, dubbed as the “world’s smartest container” is equipped with sensors and communication technology using which, it will collect data as it travels around the world for two years..

It will record vibrations, pitch, position, noise, air pollution, temperature and humidity among other things that the container will encounter on its journey..

Container 42 is expected to be the prototype for the regular containers which will make valuable, granular, near real-time, reliable and secure data available to the logistics service providers, BCOs across various industries especially high value and perishable industries..