News / Going inland with the FLOW as US supply chain visibilty platform expands

The Freight Logistics Optimisation Works (FLOW) platform, a public-private partnership to share visibility on US containerised imports, has extended inland as the participants look to leverage its insights for their supply chain management and planning.

On Wednesday, the second anniversary of its launch, FLOW began to publish data on inland freight hubs, including rail terminal and warehouse destinations, according to the US Department of Transportation (DoT).

FLOW was designed to address the need for better data infrastructure and provide better visibility into supply chains to give stakeholders earlier access to information that would enable them to manage imports better and make changes if required.

It aggregates data from purchase orders and vessel bookings to provide visibility on when cargo is set to arrive at US ports of entry and matches this with current information on traffic flows, equipment availability, like chassis and drayage capacity, and terminal capacity. This secure information is accessible to participants in the initiative through a shared online portal or API, allowing them to identify problems in advance and make alternative arrangements if necessary.

At the latest count, FLOW has 70 participants, with another 60 players in the process of joining up. Among the participants are the five largest US container ports, seven of the major ocean carriers, all major chassis providers and nine of the top 20 retailers by cargo volume.

The list also includes Union Pacific and BNSF, which should give cargo owners good visibility on rail capacity and bottlenecks for imports through the west coast.

Interest among shippers has been high, according to Andrew Petrisin, advisor for multimodal freight and head of the FLOW initiative at the DoT and Paul Brashier, VP drayage and intermodal at ITS Logistics, said the platform provided “actionable information” for his company’s logistics planning.

Cargo owners are also looking to use FLOW for planning. At the recent S&P TPM24 event in Long Beach, PetSmart SVP and chief supply chain officer Ed Oldham commented that FLOW allowed his outfit to anticipate congestion or delays weeks in advance and make arrangements to circumnavigate these.

PetSmart intends to leverage FLOW towards optimising its supply chain, he said. More than just avoid looming disruptions, the company can use the data to plan better and be less “reactionary” in its decision making.

And it can avoid costly last-minute emergency measures, such as resorting to airfreight in the event of a disruption. With sufficient advance visibility, PetSmart can replace goods designated for promotional campaigns that face a delay in transit with other products, Mr Oldham said.

Allison Dane Camden, recently appointed deputy assistant secretary in charge of the DoT’s new Office of Multimodal Freight Infrastructure and Policy, noted that FLOW had confirmed predictions of a boost in west coast container traffic as a result of the problems in the Suez and Panama Canals. She remarked that the initiative has shown some “good capability” but is still relatively small compared to the envisaged full scope.

As volatility seems unlikely to die down, more companies will be looking for ways to get a better handle on looming traffic volumes and potential bottlenecks. This should push more of them to join FLOW, which in turn should boost the data pool and allow for better visibility.