Imagine you're an experienced truck driver hauling a critical shipment from Los Angeles to New York. You start your engine and merge onto the highway, only to find yourself in an unprecedented predicament: your dashboard displays nothing, your GPS fails, and your radio receives no signal. You have no visibility into road conditions ahead, no awareness of traffic congestion, and no certainty about whether you're even heading in the right direction. You're left navigating through endless streams of vehicles relying solely on fading memory and intuition.
This scenario isn't fictional for today's global supply chains. For decades, goods transportation has operated much like this disoriented truck driver—moving forward through dense fog with minimal information. Shippers couldn't track shipments in real-time, couldn't anticipate potential delays, and couldn't effectively coordinate operations across different stages. This information asymmetry didn't just reduce efficiency and increase costs; it critically weakened supply chain resilience, leaving systems particularly vulnerable to disruptions.
The 'Information Highway': Connecting Every Corner of the Supply Chain
Long Beach Port, one of America's busiest maritime gateways, understands supply chain visibility better than most. The port recently partnered with technology firm UNCOMN to develop a free cargo visualization software called the "Supply Chain Information Highway." This innovative tool aims to provide shippers with comprehensive shipment tracking data across entire supply chains, promising revolutionary improvements in transparency and efficiency for global trade.
The name itself carries profound significance. This isn't just software—it's an information conduit connecting every node of supply chains, enabling free data flow and real-time shipment visibility. At its core, the platform excels in data integration and analytics. By consolidating information from disparate sources into a unified interface, it delivers end-to-end shipment tracking that reveals a product's complete lifecycle.
Consider a clothing company's procurement manager importing cotton T-shirts from Bangladesh. Previously, they'd piece together shipment updates through fragmented emails and calls from various carriers, ports, and customs brokers—information that was often delayed, inaccurate, and formatted inconsistently, making analysis and decision-making extraordinarily difficult.
With the Information Highway, everything changes. Through a single interface, the manager can monitor each T-shirt's real-time location, status, and estimated arrival throughout its journey—from factory departure to port arrival, vessel loading, customs clearance, and final warehouse delivery. The system also provides early warnings about potential disruptions like severe weather, port congestion, or customs inspections, enabling proactive mitigation.
Solving Supply Chain Fragmentation
Long Beach Deputy Executive Director Noel Hacegaba explained during a media briefing that lack of visibility and data transparency consistently ranks among stakeholders' top concerns. He noted how information gaps become particularly acute during "blank sailings" (canceled voyages), while the rapid increase in extra loaders frequently catches supply chains unprepared.
"Information isn't flowing effectively across supply chains," Hacegaba observed, pinpointing a fundamental challenge: fragmentation. Modern supply chains comprise numerous disconnected segments—suppliers, manufacturers, carriers, ports, customs, warehouses, and distributors—each maintaining separate information systems and data formats with minimal interoperability.
The Information Highway addresses this through open architecture and standardized data formats that enable seamless system integration. Supporting multiple data transmission protocols (EDI, API, Webhooks), it allows easy connection with existing shipper systems. The platform also facilitates secure data sharing among supply chain partners—carriers, ports, and customs authorities can exchange shipment information to synchronize operations.
Complementing Rather Than Competing
Long Beach already operates the Weekly Advance Volume Estimate (WAVE) dashboard for vessel, container, and gate turn-time data, while neighboring Los Angeles Port offers the Port Optimizer for container movement and asset management. Executive Director Mario Cordero emphasized that the new system aims to complement rather than duplicate existing tools.
"Our goal isn't to compete with what's already in the market," Cordero stated during the briefing, reflecting Long Beach's collaborative philosophy. The Information Highway is designed for integration, creating a more comprehensive supply chain ecosystem when combined with existing platforms.
For example, integrating with WAVE could combine port operational data with shipment tracking to improve arrival estimates, while connecting with Port Optimizer might merge container movement insights with broader logistics visibility.
Security as Priority
In the digital age, data security is paramount. Recognizing that shipment information constitutes sensitive business intelligence, Long Beach prioritized robust protection measures. The Information Highway employs advanced encryption, multi-factor authentication, and strict access controls, while complying with international standards like ISO 27001 and SOC 2. Regular security audits ensure ongoing safeguards.
Global Expansion Vision
Long Beach envisions this as more than a local solution—it's the first segment of a global supply chain visibility network. The port plans to share the system with other gateways, starting with Oakland. "We'll track cargo from origin through last-mile delivery and potentially beyond," Hacegaba explained, underscoring ambitions to gather data from every supply chain segment.
This initiative reflects Long Beach's leadership in digital transformation, which includes automated terminals, intelligent traffic management, and electronic data exchange platforms. By demonstrating how technology can enhance supply chain resilience, Long Beach offers a model for other ports and logistics stakeholders.
The Supply Chain Information Highway represents more than technological progress—it signals an industry paradigm shift from information silos toward shared visibility and collaboration. In this emerging era, supply chains won't resemble disoriented truck drivers navigating blindly, but rather interconnected networks operating with unprecedented transparency, efficiency, and sustainability.