hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the iot for all podcast I'm Ryan Chacon and on today's episode we're going to be focused on talking about telematics and iot as it connects to the supply chain and dry containers a very interesting conversation I promise you uh on what the person joining me today will be Al Tama the vice president of Business Development Entertainer import Solutions at orbcom they are a leader in industrial iot Solutions um I think we get a lot of value out of this conversation but before I let you go into the episode please be sure to subscribe to our Channel if you've not done so already hit that Bell icon to get the latest episode as soon as they are out and give this video a thumbs up alright now on to the episode welcome out to the iot for all podcast thanks for being here this week oh it's great to be here thanks for having me absolutely I definitely look forward to this conversation um let me kick it off by having you give a quick introduction about yourself to our audience sure so um my name is Al Tama and I work for orbcom uh we're a leader uh in industrial Internet of Things technology and telematic you'll hear me use iot and telematics maybe a little bit interchangeably uh because they're very similar things um orpcom has over 2 million subscribers and deals in many different business verticals we have our own constellation of satellites that provide you know iot data and vessel tracking just to name a couple of the functions that they that they do we're involved in uh Transportation over the road uh heavy equipment and the container and Port space which is what I in particular focus on so when we talk about Marine transportation of containers that's uh that's my area of focus fantastic um yeah we'll get into all that for sure but I want to kick it off by talking about one of the points you mentioned which is telematics and iot you talk about using them interchangeably um but to our audience could you kind of talk about at a high level telematics what it is how it works at you know again at high level and how you kind of connect it with with the iot world sure yeah I mean they're not they don't really mean the same thing right internet of things everybody has their phone to control their thermostat and their lights and stuff like that and that's not what uh what what I do for a living um what we uh do and what I do is we place um modems so think of a portable modem device where you fix them you know usually permanently sometimes temporarily to an asset so like we were talking about could be a container it could be a you know a tractor-trailer that goes over the road um whatever it is basically it's most basic function is to track the location where is it um depending on uh what the asset is you know that use case could become much more uh you know you know much more intense so you can have something that's uh you're able to control like we talked about being able to control your lights you can you know change the temperature on a on a container that's uh you know climate controlled or refrigerated you can have cameras that look for cargo and take snapshots of pictures and see how loaded you know something is and and on and on I could name a thousand use cases but that's really what um the iot portion uh of uh you know a forbcom is when it comes to the container space okay fantastic and I know you mentioned yeah the container space which is actually a conversation in a use case we don't talk too much about summarize that up for for the audience like when we're talking about telematics in the container space um what does that use case really mean and what does that look like yeah sure so it's funny because you don't talk about it a lot most people don't think about it a lot either right like you go to your store or more often than not you order on your your laptop or your right you know something from you know Amazon or some other company and it just arrives at your door somehow um here in the US a lot of the stuff comes you know from overseas and that um those goods are all transported you know via ocean-going containers which um you know they're loaded um at the point of origin put on a vessel they make it over here to the U.S in our case and then they're put on a truck and sometimes move to a warehouse uh where it then is you know translated to another you know form of shipping like a over the road you know trailer and eventually it gets to you know the distribution point when it makes to our doorstep so what we do is yeah as I said we track you know all those movements um basically the end-to-end supply chain and historically what um has been done in this uh container spaces we've tracked refrigerated containers they're basically climate controlled because they could be heated as well um those are where your high value goods come from and a lot of it is a produce Pharmaceuticals that that type of thing um so once again very important to the international you know trade you know when you uh go to your your favorite restaurant you know you look at your plate you know chances are a lot you know some portion of that came you know via a shipping container right right so um that's historically where um iot has been enabled in the container space um now what we're getting uh to the point uh too is where we can track dry containers we've always had the technology um but if there's 30 million uh containers total in the world and about 2 million are refrigerated the vast majority are so what that means is that the scale for deployment is a lot greater so it's not just a technology play you also have to hit a certain price point you know for scale and a couple other factors and that's the point that we finally have reached today so that's something uh that's pretty exciting that I'm hoping to talk about today yeah so so let me ask you you mentioned that is this kind of a new space really that's kind of seeing the benefits of iot Technologies and so forth what's what's really kind of changed or I guess even another way to ask that is what's been the challenge for iot to really get into um more of the dry container space which sounds like the majority of the shipping for supply chain is through Dry containers but why has it been so slow to adopt yeah it's a great question um and it's something that I've lived a long journey uh to get to where we are today um maybe the way to answer it is a little bit um you know circuitous I'll start with once again like where we live here in the the northeast of the US there are all these you know uh you know fleets of trucks that transport Goods um and those fleets um have started adopting iot you know technology in the in the early 2000s and and now it's pretty much you know saturated and penetrated right like any truck whether it's refrigerated or dry probably has multiple devices on it you know to track drivers as well as cargo and the assets and all kinds of you know things about the maintenance of the the vehicle too um the container space the scale is so much bigger and these um containers don't stop moving right they could be anywhere in the world at any time so the logistics of our rollout are much more challenging um than you know a regional Trucking Fleet right there and of course the expenditure is uh you know exponentially greater you know as well to do the uh to do the rollout so so that's been a challenge uh just in the industry itself you know probably 10 years after these trucking companies started tracking you know their their cargo um we got the first deployment of refrigerated you know uh container technology back in around 2010 you know around number and so it's taken about a decade to get to the point where that um technology is proven um it's not fully adopted Believe It Believe It or Not only about a third of refrigerated containers have you know telematics or iot on them but the the use cases there and it's proven and the rollouts uh are you know continuing and I think we're getting to the point where that is going to be uh you know 100 nobody doubts the use case once again that that challenge of the the rollout right and what we've seen is that with the um early adopters if you will that have employed um you know iot on their refrigerated containers they've become um you know so ingrained in the the use of of technology for tracking to uh achieve operational efficiencies and also provide visibility to their customers as well as themselves that now they are adopting you know the dry container technology so it sounds like this is an industry that's very similar to a lot of other Industries where you know adopting a new technology and solution like this can be quite slow you know quite slow to that take that digital transformation leap if you will for a number of reasons but why what do you think it is that has kind of caused the industry to be slower to adopt I know now you're saying you know adopt the use cases are getting out there and I think that's the case for a lot of Industries right where once you start seeing the use cases more people start to be less less concerned or scared to to adopt but um I guess what I should ask is is what what are the biggest um things people companies have seen with these use cases that are leading to that increased adoption because it's like I said there's a lot of Industries out there that are in a similar boat where like if it's not broke let's not let's not touch it you know it works let's not worry about optimizing it's good where it is but that's not necessarily what you know this whole world is all about when it comes to iot and digital transformation right there's so much more that can be done and it takes takes a little bit of effort to get them to realize the value of being able to see their data in in a better way to bring their data together to make decisions on it stuff they may not have really thought about so what have you seen or what have you all kind of done to really help those companies kind of get over the hump and see the value when they you know maybe kind of set in their ways prior to that yeah it's a it's great you you summed up a lot of the the key you know uh facets of the challenge um it's a very conservative industry the shipping industry right and and these uh these entities have been shipping for hundreds of years in in some cases right um and and to a large degree they're they're running the operation a very similar way right especially when it comes to the ocean going portion of it um so and at the end of the day you know those companies are going to move Goods whether they're providing visibility to their end customers or or not so yeah they've been uh very conservative um the what has happened is there's an initiative I mean first of all the world is digitalized right so you can only hold on for so long to be that last piece of of analog when it comes to the the supply chain um but there's also been some industry-wide initiatives where actually um the top 10 Shipping Lines in the world have formed something called the uh the dcsa and the the whole point of the digital container shippers Association is to really focus on digitalization data sharing and getting away from that analog world because that's been the Second Challenge right a lot of the data when it's got out there is siled so it only provides limited value you have to have interchangeable data sets so that the data can be shared you know easily and then you can really you know derive the value from it right it's kind of like having an open open ecosystem and so orbcom we have been advocating for uh data standards um you know for this data sharing purpose and also of course advocating the different use cases you know for for well over a decade so right a lot of lobbying to get to this point but you know the proof is in the pudding as as they say and once you do adopt the technology uh what you do reap the benefits and there's a lot of benefits that kind of uh are a little bit harder to see it's like you have to take a leap of face faith before you can achieve those benefits and and many have done so yeah one of the biggest things I've seen a lot of these industries that are slower to adopt is once they start to see the value of being able to access real-time data um it just kind of turns the light bulb on on all the different things that are possible when it comes to kind of the shipping supply chain kind of world as companies that you've worked with are seen adopt iot solutions that have enabled this access to real-time data what would you say is the number one like value that is providing them that you know to be able to do what maybe they couldn't do before if there's like one thing you picked out of that what would what would you kind of say is the biggest value for that access to real-time data yeah just I'm sorry I'm not going to answer by just saying one I'll name a couple or okay fair enough fair enough but you know uh knowing where your asset is of course you know can't be undervalued right especially in the global Shipping you know industry right having a container in the right place or knowing where they are is a challenge right and so it's a lot easier to know where that container is when you know you just look at it on the screen live right rather than get a report well it was last seen here so we think it's in this area um so container repositioning is important you know especially like during the pandemic so many Goods came um you know coming uh from the you know from Asia over to the west coast of the U.S so containers were positioned very disproportionately right being able to reposition them you know quickly is important um and of course the um you know the health of your cargo right the making sure that it's okay particularly when you're talking about those high value Goods would be them Pharmaceuticals or produce you know um you know Electronics you know that they haven't been compromised you know through these long Journeys is also is also valuable and when you do have that exceptional event that okay you do have a cargo compromising a cargo that is compromised kind of accelerating the next shipment right so to try and minimize disruption to the you know to the supply chain make sure those shelves aren't aren't empty I mean those are just a few of the of the values the other thing would be the customer experience which I think um the shipping industry is now latching on to customers have been asking for visibility you know to their shipments in more real time you know for years right especially you know because you order your pizza and you know okay it's just in the oven and you know you're right right like why can't I get visibility and they're like you know it's on a ship it's it's in the Atlantic it'll be there it's somewhere over here right yeah no I got you I agree and I think that's where we're headed and that's kind of leads into a really good kind of question I have next which is um what is kind of the impact of this technology we're talking about how it's working now and what the benefits it can provide now but where do you see this kind of big picture long term like what where does it where does this take that industry and where does it kind of get them for where they are now to that next next step down the road as technology continues to evolve adoption increases use cases kind of grow like where do you where does kind of what is everybody going to get excited about as to what this could eventually enable yeah I think you gosh there's so many benefits it's like you know it goes beyond you know us as kind of like the Final End customer we pretty much have our visibility right you you track whatever it is is coming to your house and we can see it we don't see the portion before that so I think um but I think what um you know increased visibility just means a tighter supply chain um you're able to get um you know levels of security because you know who's been you you know in a container and who's had possession of it so you really um are able to trace that back in terms of you know the the journey The Voyage right that's all very important stuff you can you know imagine things around Customs uh for example uh you know kind of there's so many benefits when it comes to like preventing you know uh human trafficking or kind of you know any sort of Contraband that gets put in these uh in these containers and things things of that nature um and you can also uh really then mine data like right I'm a big data guy right everybody loves data you can really look at well what routes did everything take and start you know kind of engineering out you know maybe unnecessary turns or maybe just even an a corridor that you know just kind of uses too much uh energy right reduce your carbon footprint um yeah so it's Limitless once you start generating data that's why I said like you have to take that leap of faith and then you have all this data then you figure out what to do with it in some cases right so yeah there's right there's a simple you know use cases and then there's the benefits that you you didn't foresee I totally agree you know once you get access that data it's almost like there's Endless Possibilities if you put your mind to really thinking about what you can do with it but it does take some time to really kind of wrap your your brain around um what value that can really provide you because for so many years you know if that data is not accessible or not accessible in a real-time manner it's they're not even thinking about that kind of stuff so it does take some time to start to really see the value to adopt the technology implement it roll out use cases see successes and there's going to be a lot of laggers behind that will see that success say okay now I'm ready to adopt and it kind of starts to spread into other areas of the industry I think one of the biggest values we have is just the evolution of a lot of the Technologies in iot and how they've grown and how they become cheaper and just you know we're making it more possible now than it ever was before to to bring these solutions to lots of different Industries more easily and more affordably and that's where I think across iot in general we're starting to see adoption really pick up and this is a space that I think a lot of people would argue over the last number of years has been a lot pretty big headache for people right for anything with supply chain related so knowing that this is becoming more of a popular implementation in the industry and we're starting to see it adopted in the majority of of the shipping containers like you know I'm learning about today just the fact that that's that's even the case um is is you know is very exciting for the for the future of of supply chain and things like that which I know a lot of people you know don't deal the day-to-day but they do interact with it day to day they just may not realize it and I think as this improves it's going to improve just consumer satisfaction and you know things just across the board yep we're all impacted by what happens in the the supply chain with these large shippers right you know nobody wants to go have that you know go to the store and that that you know shelf is bare right or where their item is you know more than a couple days away right they want it right yeah I mean I we get used to that right like I mean we talked about like you gave the pizza example but I mean just there are things that are shipping within the United States that they're now there are easy to use apps that will you can basically and even with Amazon too you can follow your product on the map so why not why can't shouldn't companies be able to do that I know there's obviously Network and connection type things there's technologies that are used more on land than versus in C which do change things up a bit but technology is improving and enhanced getting enhanced to the point of this is eventually hopefully becomes um kind of as TurnKey as it is for you know normal consumer orders which should be fantastic um last thing I want to ask you before I let you go here is just um for audience who's listening to this and wants to learn more about not just orbcom but also kind of this space and these use cases and things like that maybe as follow-up questions from this conversation what's the best way they can reach out and kind of engage yeah uh orbcom.com orb-c-o-mm.com um you can certainly find a lot of information there you also have the ability to chat with us and uh um you know basically get any questions or inquiries you know addressed and answered um so that's uh you know that's a good place to start fantastic well thank you so much this has been a really cool conversation it was something that you know when I know when I was first talking with the team about doing this episode uh we're trying to narrow down what would be the most value for not just you all but also for our audience and we found something that was a topic that we don't cover a lot of um but it's something that I think now when we've kind of raised more awareness about it we'll start to really get into the minds of people to see like okay iot Technology's really really growing being adopted and there's a lot to understand of of the value it can play in the entire supply chain not just in in the shipping in the container spot space but just overall we're seeing those that adoption increase which is a win for everybody yeah I think a lot of people are going to be surprised to learn that you know all those containers aren't tracked and they haven't been tracked right probably going to be amazed from that so yeah it's good to bring awareness to what's happening in the space and thanks for for having me here uh Ryan because you know I love talking about iot and absolutely yeah yeah this was great I mean I I'm I'm I'm one of those people that you just mentioned you're going to be very surprised to learn how things are not as tracked as well as maybe we thought they were I also the the fact that majority of shipping containers are dry versus kind of refrigerated and so forth that is something that you know I didn't know much about we talked about Refrigeration uh or you know cold chain monitoring and and things like that but but this is this is something that definitely learned a lot from so I really appreciate the time and look forward to getting this out to our audience absolutely thanks Ryan thank you all right have a good one all right everyone thanks again for watching that episode of the I2 for all podcast if you enjoyed the episode please click the Thumbs Up Button subscribe to our Channel and be sure to hit the Bell notification so you get the latest episodes as soon as they become available other than that thanks again for watching and we'll see you next time
2023-02-14