Shipping portals are web-based communities which allow shippers, consignees and forwarders access to multiple carriers through a single site and concentrate on providing bookings, track and trace, documentation functions, and allow users to communicate with their carriers. In many respects, a shipping portal is to the maritime industry what a global distribution system (GDS) is to the airline industry.
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Shipping portals first emerged in 2001 when CargoSmart, GT Nexus and Inttra all launched their trial phases.
CargoSmart was launched in October 2000 and has four offices located in Hong Kong, the United States, China, and the United Kingdom. CargoSmart is a global logistics software as a service (SaaS) solution provider, with advanced visibility and exception management.[1]
GT Nexus provides trade and logistics software as a service, over the Web, on a pay-as-you-go basis.[2]
Inttra is a carrier-owned and funded portal, with CMA CGM, Hamburg Süd, Hapag-Lloyd, A. P. Moller-Maersk Group (Maersk), Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. (MSC) and United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) all represented on the board. Inttra claims its carrier members account for 60% of global shipping capacity. In 2005-2006 new carriers CP Ships, K Line, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), and MISC all signed up to join. Inttra is a leading global provider of e-commerce solutions to ocean carriers and their customers. Their e-commerce platform offers a comprehensive range of e-commerce tools, including: tender, sailing schedules, booking, shipping instructions, bill of lading, tracking and tracing, and reports.[3]
Membership across the three main shipping portals comprises 30 carriers of varying sizes, but the majority are amongst the world's largest, so most of the industry's TEU capacity is represented.
| Carrier[4] | TEU | CargoSmart | GT Nexus | Inttra |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maersk / Safmarine / MCC Transport Singapore | 2,005,000 | |||
| Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) | 1,521,000 | |||
| CMA CGM / Australian National Lines (ANL) | 976,000 | |||
| China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) | 497,000 | |||
| Hapag-Lloyd | 488,000 | |||
| American President Lines (APL) | 470,000 | |||
| China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) | 455,000 | |||
| Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) | 420,000 | |||
| Hanjin / Senator Line | 382,000 | |||
| Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) | 380,000 | |||
| Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) | 356,000 | |||
| Hamburg Süd / Aliança | 318,000 | |||
| K Line | 316,000 | |||
| Yang Ming Line | 311,000 | |||
| CSAV / Libra | 299,000 | |||
| Zim Line / Gold Star Line | 277,000 | |||
| Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) | 265,000 | |||
| United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) | 150,000 | |||
| Wan Hai Lines | 123,000 | |||
| MISC Berhad | 98,000 | |||
| Emirates Shipping Line | 25,000 | |||
| Crowley Maritime | 19,000 | |||
| Deutsche Afrika Linien (DAL) | 11,000 |
One of the main drawbacks of the portals is that none of them can access all shipping lines. With an estimated 250 container shipping lines world-wide, many carriers are left out. Though, since the process of shipping always begins by choosing a voyage and then selecting a carrier, some sailing schedule search engines have emerged to help shippers and forwarders find which carriers sail on which routes and when.
| Search Engine | # of Carriers | Schedule Search | Route Search | Private Label Search | Data Feeds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linescape | 120 | ||||
| OceanSchedules | 30 | ||||
| CargoSmart | 10 |
Linescape[5] hosts the mosts schedules, from 120 carriers, followed by OceanSchedules and CargoSmart. Linescape's route-search function allows users to input origin and destination countries and then quickly find all port-to-port permutations sorted by duration. With these results, users can quickly find the routes and schedules they are looking for and immediately click-through to any carrier's website to initiate the shipping process.[6] OceanSchedules and CargoSmart both offer a private-label search interface which can be placed on third party websites. In 2011, all three search engines started to offer data feeds of schedule data which shippers and forwarders can integrate into their Transportation Management System, to increase efficiencies and reduce the costs associated with searching schedules.