By Paul Scott Abbott, AJOTTechnological advances are helping shippers of refrigerated cargo make the most of limited inventories of equipment and warehousing space while increasing cold chain visibility. “You have to embrace technology,” said Mike Cara, vice president of MCST Preferred Transportation, a Jersey City, NJ-based firm specializing in the warehousing and transport of imports of frozen seafood and other temperature-sensitive goods. MCST Preferred counts supermarket chains and other major distributors among its customers. Cara, who in 1979 co-founded the company that in 1990 became MCST Preferred, said his firm has spent $280,000 over the past 3 1/2 years to upgrade its computer system, integrating multiple software systems so that real-time information on shipments is readily available. “Refrigerated warehouses and frozen warehouses are all at capacity now,” Cara said. “It has become all the more important for me to push information.” By staying on top of shipment information, the potential for Customs-related delays can be reduced, as can hefty demurrage and per diem charges assessed when equipment is held up at the pier or is not promptly returned, Cara said. Cara, whose firm operates 18 US warehouses from Massachusetts to Florida to California, said demurrage bills that can be as high as $450 per day per container can take a bite out of profits for those dealing in frozen and refrigerated goods. But information technology can readily be used to speed Customs releases and avert other possible costly holdups. Tim Slifkin, chief executive officer and founder of Morristown, NJ-based StarTrak Systems LLC, the leading US provider of tracking, monitoring and control services for refrigerated cargo transportation, pointed out that wireless technology is revolutionizing the industry. “There are fundamental changes going on,” said Slifkin, whose firm became part of Scottsdale, AZ-based Alanco Technologies Inc. last June. “Wireless technology is helping change the operational model for the business. This technology is not a way to improve the way that things operated in the past, but rather it changes the entire model.” StarTrak’s latest innovation – ReeferTrak Sentry – makes tracking more affordable by operating on a cellular-based wireless communications platform as opposed to the more costly satellite platform used for the company’s ReeferTrak Commander system, Slifkin noted. As with all ReeferTrak solutions, the Sentry product includes a communicator hardware unit on the refrigerated trailer as well as a monthly subscription service providing customers access to system information flow. “There was a time when people fought this kind of thing because they did not want visibility,” Slifkin said. “Now, people are demanding it. They figure it’s better to know if something’s wrong than not to know, because, when you know, you can make changes.” Systems permit customers to remotely monitor a full range of logistical and operational information, from unit location to temperatures. The Sentry product also allows remote control of operating conditions and temperature of equipped trailers. This can be done via the Internet and/or through customers’ own dispatch systems. Not only is this important in ensuring that appropriate temperatures of shipments are maintained but also is valuable in reducing unnecessary burning of $2.50-a-gallon diesel fuel on refrigerated units, Slifkin noted. In addition to being on both Carrier Corp. and Thermo King Corp.’s refrigerated trailers, ReeferTrak units may be found on virtually every one of the 7,000 to 8,000 refrigerated railcars built since 2000, according to Slifkin. Both of the major players in the temperature-controlled transport sector – Carrier and ThermoKing – are continuing to introduce new technologies. In March, the Syracuse, NY-based Carrier Transicold business unit of United Technologies Co