Port of Los Angeles rolls out Control Tower data tool

Earlier this week, the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) its newest offering focused on the ongoing digitization of its supply chain operations, coupled with augmenting cargo efficiency and fluidity.

Entitled the “Control Tower” data tool, POLA officials said that it provides real-time views of truck turn times and other truck capacity management information, which helps cargo owners, truckers, and other supply chain stakeholders to mor effectively predict and plan cargo flows.

This offering follows the lead of POLA’s Port Optimizer, a cloud-based secure digital portal of maritime shipping data used to facilitate more efficient cargo flow through its terminals, which the port released in 2017, and the more recent rollouts of Port Optimizer-related offerings, the Signal and Return Signal over the last five months.

POLA said that the Control Tower launch provides users current snapshots of turn times at all of the Port’s cargo terminals, which are continuously updated with GeoStamp data and are also broken down by historical daily and monthly averages. The Control Tower also provides recent and future trending volume data, as well as historical volumes and trends dating back to 2017, segmented by mode and specificity, the port said. And it also noted that the Control Tower tool was developed in a partnership with Wabtac and is being rolled out in phases, with more features added throughout 2021 based on user feedback and supply chain developments. Port stakeholders can sign up to use the Control Tower at Tower.Portoptimizer.com.

In an interview with LM, POLA Executive Director Gene Seroka said that the Control Tower offerings, including Port Optimizer, represent the only digital port community system in the U.S.

“The Control Tower is an aerial view of all of the activities at the port level,” he said. “Think about as a logistics manager being able to make decisions with real-time truck information on how long it takes that truck to get into and out of a marine terminal,” he said. “Are they carrying one container or doing a round trip with a dual transaction? How long does it take to get out of the port based on real-time traffic information? And soon to come [in the tool] will be real-time train information, from dwell times of containers, both destined for truck and rail to how quickly our rail cars are moving in an out of the port. And on top of that there is a holistic view of the volume that moves through the port by mode and node.”

Seroka added the Control Tower will provide a higher level of transparency to the port’s stakeholders and for the logistics decision maker, knowing where and when to ship, who its trusted partners can and will be, as well as having choice on how to ship your cargo.

“This is really starting to take shape through the Control Tower,” he said.