PACECO halves wheeled container/chassis inventory tracking time at ports with Aspera
GigaOM MOBILIZE, SAN FRANCISCO & EMERYVILLE, Calif., September 20, 2012—PACECO Corp., a leading manufacturer of container handling equipment for ports around the globe, has deployed solutions from Aspera, Inc., creators of next-generation software technologies that move the world’s data at maximum speed, to transmit images for container inventory tracking at ports.
The world’s largest ports and terminals count on PACECO to track thousands of cargo containers moving through their facilities each day. Accurate, real-time tracking of container and chassis cargo is critical to ensure smooth on time delivery of cargo as well as safeguarding port security. At ports, railroads, and terminals, PACECO’s Mobile Inventory Vehicle (MIV) photographs each container and chassis in a designated parking spot, capturing the chassis and container’s unique identifier.
PACECO has deployed Aspera Enterprise Server with Aspera Client software to quickly and reliably transmit the container images to the port’s central system. The system uses optical character recognition to capture the container’s ID and update its location in real-time.
Before implementing Aspera technology, PACECO relied on standard messaging technology to transmit the images to the port’s server, but the technology was slow, and transmission often failed. Images would have to be re-transmitted, and in some cases the container’s location would have to be tracked down manually, wasting time and resources.
With Aspera, PACECO has cut image transmission times in half: “Aspera has been invaluable because we can now transmit an image in one to two seconds versus three to four seconds. When you multiply those seconds by thousands of containers that must be tracked, the time savings are truly significant,” said PACECO engineer Bernie Yip. “In the past, transmissions often failed, and images had to be resent. With Aspera, that’s no longer an issue, as the underlying fasp protocol is extremely fast, robust and reliable.”
With ever-increasing numbers of containers to track, the ability of Aspera’s solutions to scale effectively was also paramount. The deployment has also resulted in cost savings that allow PACECO to save bandwidth and reduce data usage charges.
Aspera Client is a full-featured desktop transfer client, which can be embedded into applications to initiate and automate secure high-speed file transfers. At PACECO, the Aspera Client is embedded in mobile computers mounted on container handling equipment (CHE), cranes, and trucks. The mobile computers transmit the container and chassis images to PACECO’s main location that houses the Aspera Enterprise Server on the Internet. The container is identified and the appropriate shipping manifest is automatically updated, enabling port and terminal personnel to track container and chassis inventory in real time.
Built on patented fasp™ technology, the Aspera Enterprise Server delivers maximum transfer throughput independent of distance and network conditions. Large data sets of small files can be transferred with the same efficiency as large single files. PACECO relies on Aspera’s ability to scale to thousands of concurrent transfers per server host to manage the large volume of containers moving through a port or terminal.
Media Contact: Kim Willsher, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, ( 1) 310 569 2603, kimw@rlyl.com
About PACECO Corp.
PACECO CORP. is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of container handling equipment for cargo ports. The company’s trademark Transtainer® Ruber Tired Gantry Crane (RTG), and the PORTAINER® Quay Crane, is one of the most reliable and productive quay cranes on the market, and is used by some of the world’s largest ports, including the Ports of Hong Kong, Singapore and Los Angeles. PACECO is also a leader in cutting edge technology, which includes Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) installed on thousands of CHE in US Terminals that interface to Terminal Operating Systems. PACECO is also a leader in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Systems. These systems include RTG and Tophandler OCR sensing that enables reading of ISO standard container numbers and the Mobile Inventory Systems (MIV) that utilizes GPS and OCR technology to read parked chassis and container numbers in real-time. The MIV alone has reduced the time to inventory a 4000-parking spot container/chassis terminal from a ten-hour manual process to two hours with this automated system.
Learn more at http://pacecocorp.com/or pacecocas.com.
About Aspera
Aspera is the creator of next-generation transport technologies that move the world’s data at maximum speed regardless of file size, transfer distance and network conditions. Based on its patented fasp™ protocol, Aspera software fully utilizes existing infrastructures to deliver the fastest, most predictable file-transfer experience. Aspera’s core technology delivers unprecedented control over bandwidth, complete security and uncompromising reliability. More than 1700 organizations across a variety of industries on six continents rely on Aspera software for the business-critical transport of their digital assets.
Please visit www.asperasoft.com and follow us on Twitter @asperasoft for more information.
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