Sea Star Line, Mark-It form technology alliance

Sea Star Line has established a strategic alliance with Mark-It Services to outfit its refrigerated systems with both Global Positioning (GPS) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems.

This alliance is called the Sea Star Line refrigerated cargo Guardian Service. The new technology gives Sea Star wireless monitoring capacities on its entire refrigerated container fleet, marine terminals, and vessels. This has been achieved through wireless devices mounted on each refrigerated container that continually report the status of all temperatures, and other onboard conditions, back to a web-based software platform. It provides Sea Star total and continual visibility and control.

Customers receive peace of mind by knowing their valuable and time-sensitive cargo is protected from origin to destination without any “dead spots” along the supply chain. For example, on a typical journey from Puerto Rico to the inland United States, reefers are continually in view. Visibility is provided even when reefers are at crucial intermodal junctions from land to sea and back.

This hardware and software system was provided by Mark-It Services of New Jersey. The Guardian Service tracks and monitors a container as it moves within the customer’s supply chain. Data such as real-time GPS location, reefer running/stopped events, set/supply/return temperatures, and USDA probe temperatures are all available at the operator’s fingertips.

Any reefer alarms that occur are pushed immediately to operator screens and sent via e-mail and SMS so corrective actions can be taken. Traditionally such alarms would only be visible during scheduled manual “walkaround” inspections that are less frequent, more labor-intensive, and prone to interruption.

The Guardian Service also lets commands be sent to the reefer to change set points, start/stop pre-trips, and order downloads without having to visit the unit.

“By using advanced GPS and wireless technologies, we are going to be able to offer our customers reefer tracking, tracing, and control 24/7,” said Jim Wagstaff, assistant vice-president of operations for Sea Star Line.

Headquartered in Jacksonville FL, Sea Star Line offers cargo transportation services from North America to Puerto Rico and the Caribbean islands.