In the field of terminal operations, digitalization has been underway for several decades. During the growth phase, digitalizing any aspect of terminal operations can significantly enhance efficiency. However, in the current era of existing operations, companies are finding it increasingly challenging to realize ideal returns from isolated digital investments.
Times have changed, and the approach to terminal digitalization needs to change as well. On September 19th, Chengdu Easygo Digital Technology Co., Ltd. in China hosted the “E-Station Online for Global Container Storage and Shared Prosperity” global product launch event, providing fresh ideas and solutions for terminal digitalization.
Reconstruction of Production Relationships to Meet Demands
As highlighted by Tao Jingwen, CIO of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., in a public speech: “Any digital transformation that does not involve process restructuring is merely for show.” An ideal industrial internet involves the restructuring of internal industry production relationships, horizontal industry production relationships, and vertical industry production relationships.
As the digital transformation of the international logistics supply chain gradually shifts from isolated partial digitization to full-chain digitization, there is a need to reevaluate industry relationships and diversify digital links. When some terminals opt for digital transformation to unearth incremental growth, they naturally expect a specialized platform to serve as infrastructure, capable of addressing all their needs in one place.
At the EasyDepots Global Network Product Launch, Tang Su, Deputy General Manager of Easygo, emphasized the five core strategic directions of the EasyDepots Global Network.
- “One-Stop Online, Global Storage”
Thanks to the extensive coverage of the EasyDepots Global Network, demand-side stakeholders such as cargo owners, container lessors, freight forwarders, and shipping companies no longer need to invest substantial time and effort in searching for and selecting terminals. Terminal operators will expand from having the capability to operate a single terminal to becoming service providers with a global terminal network.
Under the intelligent matching capabilities of EasyDepots Global Network, the shortcomings in matching supply and demand in the container storage market, which hinder cooperation and high-quality development, will be eliminated. This will promote dynamic equilibrium in the supply chain, fostering collaboration and achieving mutual success across the industry chain.
- “Unified Pricing within the Same Port Area”
For a long time, especially as the international logistics industry has gradually transitioned to high-quality development, the terminal industry has faced disordered competition and price wars. When EasyDepots Global Network can use its platform’s power to coordinate unified pricing based on regional units like seaports/land ports, terminal operators will no longer need to worry about being caught in price wars. This allows them to focus more on improving service quality and efficiency, thereby promoting the industry’s healthy development.
For terminal clients, under stable supply and demand matching, pricing becomes more transparent, choices become simpler, and terminal supply becomes more stable, leading to a certain degree of improvement in operational efficiency.
- “Unified Standards, Digital Support”
Leveraging Easygo’s in-house digital system, the EasyDepots Global Network will achieve breakthroughs in digital business management and standardized operational processes.
At the digital business management level, EasyDepots Global Network enables real-time monitoring of inventory distribution, progress in planned container returns, and effective linkage of business data collection, interaction, management, analysis, operations, and demand.
At the standardized operational process level, guided by the system, EasyDepots Global Network has established more than 80 standardized business operation processes, including stacking, retrieval, unloading, maintenance, and more. This comprehensive enhancement not only elevates terminal service quality and stability but also significantly enhances trust between supply and demand parties through the system.
- “Unified Branding, Multi-Channel Marketing”
EasyDepots Global Network connects terminals with each other through the industrial internet, forming alliances not only at the business level but also at the branding level. Coupled with unified marketing and traffic distribution across all channels, this generates stronger growth potential.
With the endorsement of a large platform, clients engaging in cargo storage, maintenance, and repairs can feel more confident, eliminating the need for repeated communication, confirmation, and negotiations between parties.
- “Seamless Integration for Container Demand”
As the well-structured terminal industrial internet platform gradually takes shape, leveraging the platform’s unified traffic entry point, integrating with Easygo’s digital shipping and container train platforms, and orderly traffic distribution, container demand becomes more predictable. This leads to increased service quality assurance and greater predictability in container flows, ultimately facilitating shared and symbiotic relationships across the entire industry chain, resulting in a win-win scenario.
Leveraging digital capabilities, Easygo aims to establish an industrial internet ecosystem for terminals.
Over the past two years, the transformation and upgrading of the international logistics industry have quietly accelerated. On one hand, the surge in container shipping demand has exposed the inefficiencies in global container handling, with supply chains struggling to cope with the surge in demand. On the other hand, in a market that rapidly declined in 2022, many operating entities faced the challenge of insufficient incremental growth.
From the moment Easygo entered the market, it had a clear understanding of the industry’s challenges and its own strategic direction. Firstly, Easygo firmly embraced digitization as its path forward. Secondly, with substantial resource strength and clear direction guidance, Easygo’s commercial aspirations were relatively restrained. It adopted a long-term approach, not rushing to make excessive profits, but rather solving difficulties and obstacles in performance with a service-oriented mentality.
Based on decades of digital transformation exploration, platforms have consistently proven to be the most effective means of integrating industry resources and capabilities to improve overall efficiency. However, traditional platform-based enterprises, especially startups in the platform business, often aim to be the “big boss,” focusing on customer and merchant exploitation or positioning themselves as traffic sellers, all in a hurry to monetize, which leads to the creation of marketplaces.
Thus, when Easygo’s digital container operating platform leans more toward an online trading platform, it shows relative restraint in commercialization and monetization. This restraint attracts more and more customers, thereby increasing business efficiency.
Perceiving that container terminals, as hubs in international logistics, are currently facing difficulties such as disordered competition due to product homogeneity, inability to drive overall potential with isolated data, narrow customer acquisition channels due to high promotion costs, difficulties in improving service quality due to lack of standardization, as well as high costs due to low turnover efficiency, Easygo once again chose to use the power of the platform to establish an industrial internet that connects all stakeholders in the container industry, launching the EasyDepot Global Terminal Network, providing the infrastructure for the digitalization of container terminals and a digital performance platform for global container customers.
To date, Easygo has served more than 10,000 global clients and partners. The Global Network launched this time connects Easygo’s network of over 500 established partner container terminals worldwide. These terminals are located in more than 200 cities in 25 countries across the Asia-Pacific region, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and Europe.
Global container customers will enjoy a one-stop, 24/7, digital service experience through EasyDepots Global Network.
Visit the EasyDepots Global Network website to join in building the terminal industry internet: www.easydepots.com/en.