Maritime transport providers need to go digital: Kuehne + Nagel ceo

Illustrating how important the use of data is to its business, Trefzger noted that Kuehne + Nagel processes more than 150m data points every day. The corollary however is that many asset owners in the maritime transportation world have yet to realise the potential of these new technologies and are missing out. Sea transportation will always remain he reiterated but left owners to consider "how do you optimise these assets?"

"This industry has a problem with shipment data quality," Trefzger pointed out, noting that in Kuehne + Nagel's experience some one out of four status reports from shipping companies is either missing or late or contains errors.

While hoping that the consolidation of the lines would bring about better service quality, he went on to lecture owners that the high volume or purely transactional business as opposed to the customised freight that logistics providers such as Kuehne + Nagel have gone into is the segment that most needs to be optimised.

This can be done by using big data, Trefzger said. "This business needs to be optimised and digitalised," he said, adding it is precisely the mid-level high volume business that can and needs to be automated as much as possible.

On the upside, Trefzger also praised the part that ports such as Singapore are playing with the new facilities coming up in Tuas that will be set up to maximise the latest use of data technology when it comes onstream.