Federal Minister of Digital and Transport, Dr Volker Wissing, also marked the occasion by personally installing a device on one of Hapag-Lloyd’s containers on Monday.
Commenting on the milestone, Wissing said:
“Digitalisation offers great opportunities for the transport industry. One sign of this is the progress made by Hapag-Lloyd in building an intelligent container fleet. Such advances not only benefit shipping, they strengthen Germany as a location for innovation and contribute to our vision of a better connected and more efficient transport sector.”
Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen added:
“We are proud to be at the forefront of the digitalisation of container shipping. Our ‘Smart Container Fleet’ project is about transforming the industry and setting new standards for supply-chain transparency and customer service.”
The solar battery-powered tracking devices, equipped with internal sensors and GPS, transmit data through the cell network in addition to recording shock events and ambient temperature.
Hapag-Lloyd plans to install tracking devices on its entire fleet of 1.6 million dry and reefer containers. The company says the vast majority of the fleet with be equipped with the devices by the beginning of next year.