News / Hospital relief container now in African waters as it nears its destination in Accra

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Regular AIS reports received from the Loksys Trakalok tracking device show that the ship carrying the charity container of urgently needed medical supplies and equipment for a hospital in Ghana is on its way to its destination port of Tema, just a day later than scheduled.

Via a combination of GPS and AIS reports the ACL 40ft container on the Grimaldi vessel Grande Buenos Aires left Tilbury Docks at 4pm on 16 January, arriving at Antwerp 8am the following day and left the Belgian port the day after at 8pm.

The ship arrived on the West African coast at Cotonou, in Benin, at 8pm yesterday and sailed for its next port, Lagos, just after midday today, due at Tema on Saturday.

Due to public interest, The Loadstar has been tracking the container’s progress, and although much less detailed than client account information – obviously protected for security reasons – Loksys Solutions has made available a link to its site to show the progress of the container en route to the hospital in Accra.

Industry experts are forecasting an explosive growth for the container tracking market, now the technology has improved  in line with much stronger GPS signals on land and the prevalence of AIS information on ships.

And with container transport security and increased supply chain visibility paramount, the potential market is huge: more than 20m containers are in use worldwide, making an estimated 200m trips a year.

From a base of less than 20,000 in operation in 2010, the use of sophisticated tracking units is predicted to grow to over a million devices by 2016, with containers laden with high-value, pharmaceutical and reefer cargo being the prime users. Ultimately they will be used even on empty boxes, which currently carriers and lessors struggle to keep track of.

Another facet of the tracking devices is their “smart box” technology, which enables information such as manifest details, hazardous content and weight to be downloaded.

This information can be easily scanned by authorised agents and could be particularly useful for the forthcoming mandatory weighing of containers which requires certificated verification of the weight of the container and contents and is expected to be implemented by 2016.

After discharge at Tema, the container will be customs cleared and transported to the hospital at Accra, where its contents will be gratefully received by the staff and patients.

The charity would like to thank: Rawreth Storage, Loksys Solutions, Maritime Transport, Sheraton International, MK Shipping, Grimaldi, OMA Ghana and, of course, all the generous people that donated goods and their time, making this shipment possible.