Smart Shipping Containers on the Horizon

How do you picture a typical shipping container?  Is it a cardboard box?  A wooden crate that has to be pried open with a crowbar?  You might be surprised to learn that new kinds of shipping containers with new, adaptable features are in development.  These new smart containers will revolutionize the way that your cargo is transported.

SAVSU technologies is developing a smart shipping container that provides embedded cellular monitoring that can sense the condition of a payload and transmit that information back to the shipping company and the client at a moment’s notice.  This design was the recent recipient of a silver award at the Medical Design Excellence Awards.  Such advances could detect any changes in the contents of the shipment that may require a change to the transportation environment or method.

GE is working closely with Unisys on mechanical and electrical solutions for ensuring that shipping containers are not tampered with during transport.  Currently, shipping containers can use seals to ensure quality, but if there is tampering, these new enhancements would allow shipping personnel to see exactly when and where it took place.  This will only further enhance the security and safety of critical products during the transport process.

Several other companies continue to improve “smart boxes” that are already in use.  Tracking technology is improving to allow even greater management of cargo as it is being transported.  As tracking technology improves, clients and shipping professionals will be able to know the precise location of their packages at a moment’s notice from anywhere around the world.

As shipping technology continues to progress, the security and safety of your product continues to grow.  Moving further away from traditional shipping images such as cardboard boxes and wooden crates allows for innovation and added protection that was simply not possible decades ago.