- Strategic Integration: P&O Ferrymasters and Unifeeder, part of DP World, have combined services to offer clients a seamless, multimodal logistics experience across trailer, intermodal, and short-sea routes. This integration enhances operational synergies and maximizes customer value.
- Digitalization Focus: P&O Ferrymasters is a pioneer in deploying asset intelligence, integrating real-time data and monitoring tools for better customer experience and efficiency. Digitalization provides precise, data-driven insights into asset locations, conditions, and handling, crucial for maintaining high-quality service.
- Customer-Centric Innovation: The adoption of real-time visibility allows clients to track cargo along its journey, not just at endpoints. This transparency is essential for clients with door-to-door services, delivering valuable insights and higher service quality.
P&O Ferrymasters has been at the forefront of integrating real-time monitoring technology into its business processes and client experience.
Nexxiot’s Co-Founder, Dan MacGregor sits down with Jesper Uldbjerg having a joint role of CEO of P&O Ferrymasters and COO of Unifeeder, based out of Aarhus in Denmark and Erik Lund, EVP Maritime & Logistics, Nexxiot.
Discover some highlights of the discussion around P&O Ferrymasters’ adoption of Asset Intelligence technology and explore the ongoing and emerging benefits for P&O Ferrymasters & Unifeeder, and their customers.
Dan MacGregor (Nexxiot)
Jesper, great to see you today. P&O Ferrymasters was one of the first companies to adopt Nexxiot products and is a pioneer in deploying Asset Intelligence.
As part of DP World, P&O Ferrymasters merged with Unifeeder, and the organization is rolling out technology across its entire intermodal container fleets.
Jesper, what can you tell us about the organization and how it is evolving?
Jesper Uldbjerg (P&O Ferrymasters + Unifeeder)
In 2022, DP World combined P&O Ferrymasters Ltd. and Unifeeder Shortsea to establish a single brand for intra-European multimodal transportation and logistics services.
P&O Ferrymasters and Unifeeder offered complementary services. Combining the two organizations and bringing trailer, intermodal, and shortsea under one portfolio made sense practically and to maximise client value.
We also have a full-fledged logistics business. Together, these provide customers with a wide range of services which create valuable synergies and improve client experience.
Dan MacGregor (Nexxiot)
There is quite some complexity in terms of data to manage, and integrating the organizations and the culture must be challenging.
How is it evolving?
Jesper Uldbjerg (P&O Ferrymasters + Unifeeder)
It’s working well. We are merging two different cultures, and getting it right takes time and a lot of communication – but it’s worth the effort.
It’s a great opportunity to merge the best of the two organizations into one culture, giving our customers the best possible experience.
Dan MacGregor (Nexxiot)
Fantastic. Thanks for that perspective. And what about digitalization? What’s your role in managing this?
Jesper Uldbjerg (P&O Ferrymasters + Unifeeder)
For the last few years, I’ve been focusing on digitalization. We are accelerating our utilization of data, and we are focused on bringing the maximum value to our customers by paying attention to what they really need.
Digitalization significantly changes how we deliver our products and services. It enables a higher level of efficiency internally at P&O Ferrymasters. That said, the customer angle is the most important to us as we intend to drive higher quality and more data-driven services.
Dan MacGregor (Nexxiot)
Interesting, thanks Jesper for setting the scene!
Erik, how is Nexxiot deploying hardware and software to create new value for intermodal operators or carriers like P&O Ferrrymasters / Unifeeder?
Erik Lund (Nexxiot)
We are happy to have been a part of the journey with P&O Ferrrymasters since the beginning. We have seen P&O Ferrymasters embrace and benefit from digitalization and pass that value on to their customers.
Since we began equipping containers with Nexxiot devices, we have focused on providing the tools they need to monitor the location of their containers and understand their status, handling, and risks – throughout the entire journey.
Once the data comes in, the next piece is how our customers make sense of it. We support this through live alerts, location services, asset and cargo condition monitoring, geofences, and reporting.
Dan MacGregor (Nexxiot)
Interesting. So, there are multiple stakeholders for this data.
How important is providing full visibility to your clients, Jesper, given that part of your business is door-to-door freight services?
Jesper Uldbjerg (P&O Ferrymasters + Unifeeder)
It’s extremely important for P&O Ferrymasters / Unifeeder to provide our clients with real-time visibility. We are becoming more precise in our work, and this evolution to real-time data delivers a lot of value for us internally and, more importantly, for our clients and partners.
Visibility is about informing the customer where the cargo is on its journey and when the delivery was made. It’s not only about a time stamp at the end, but also about monitoring the process from A to B along with all the important events and waypoints in between.
Dan MacGregor (Nexxiot)
That makes sense.
I understand that the parent group, DP World, is very big on data and creating value through new technology. How does digitalization fit into the bigger picture?
What’s the global ambition for P&O Ferrrymasters and Unifeeder as a part of DP World?
Jesper Uldbjerg (P&O Ferrymasters + Unifeeder)
DP World’s strength is building solutions for the end customers – that they really want and value, and they’re building a significant logistics division as a part of this mission.
P&O Ferrymasters and Unifeeder play a significant role in this. When we go out and talk to our customers, we offer a package based on P&O Ferrymasters, Unifeeder, and DP World – that the customer requires. The customer doesn’t want single services. They want it all together. Being able to combine the services is extremely important.
Visibility on assets, cargo and processes is what our clients now expect.
Dan MacGregor (Nexxiot)
Erik, what’s the industry’s current perception of the value of these digital services?
Are people ready to accept them?
Are they calling for them, or do we have to show them what’s possible and how they can integrate them into their business processes?
Erik Lund (Nexxiot)
Yes, to all the above, but it depends on the structure of the individual carrier.
P&O Ferrrymaster is an excellent example of complex logistics with full intermodal services. It uses technology to provide high-quality services to its customers, including ETAs (Estimated Time of Arrival), with updates at a high frequency.
Whereas if you look at most major ocean carriers, a container or fleet of containers will disappear for months at a time.
For these carriers, visibility is of tremendous value. This realization is happening across the industry; we have now seen Hapag-Lloyd, for example, roll out over a million devices to support full-fleet visibility.
Jesper Uldbjerg (P&O Ferrymasters + Unifeeder)
This is a great opportunity for the maritime industry to give the customer assurances on essential parameters and new valuable information like arrival times.
The intelligence starts with understanding where the container is. Once you have this data, you can build on it with more context and extend visibility and value to ports and terminals or other stakeholders, but you need GPS tracking as a starting point.
Erik Lund (Nexxiot)
That’s a useful insight.
We’re talking about building a digital ecosystem with multiple stakeholders. It’s for more than just your internal operations or clients to have an ETA. There’s a list of stakeholders involved.
We have compliance, finance, ports, customs, and ultimately manufacturers, retailers, and consumers – of the products and goods. Stakeholders are also interested in getting metrics on sustainability.
Jesper Uldbjerg (P&O Ferrymasters + Unifeeder)
Sustainability is a big focus. DP World is reassigning our SBTi targets and committing to reducing scope 1 GHG emissions by 42% by 2030.
The marine vertical is responsible for over half of DP World’s emissions.
To reach the SBTi target, we need to decarbonize the marine vertical by 47% by 2030. So, from the Unifeeder perspective, we really have a task in front of us.
We’re considering various new fuels to reduce emissions, but we need to embrace all sorts of innovation to meet these ambitions.
We’re also ordering new vessels — we already have four methanol vessels on the order book, and we’re looking to increase that towards 2030.
With P&O Ferrymasters, it is mostly about road transportation. We are doing a lot in rail today, and it is already an excellent product for the customer from the emissions side.
For trucking, we need to improve sustainability. Electric trucks are developing fast, but it’s not quite there yet. We will continue developing our strategy across these business sectors to achieve our sustainability targets.
Visibility helps us to monitor transport routes, modalities, and manage multimodal operations.
Dan MacGregor (Nexxiot)
That’s right, we can improve multimodality and ensure that the truck aligns with the rail operator because rail creates seven times less emissions per ton of cargo than the road.
But we need to know where the asset is, when it will arrive, what state the asset is in, and what should happen next in the transport process for this to be effective.
Is that true in your case?
Jesper Uldbjerg (P&O Ferrymasters + Unifeeder)
Exactly. All the steps need to align. We start by knowing where the container is, and then we can build out applications and services from there. Our customer is our main goal. This is aligned with the philosophy of DP World. We increase customer satisfaction and improve our own business operations.
Dan MacGregor (Nexxiot)
How ready are the customers? You have a wide variety of customers – some are probably sophisticated, and some are maybe wondering what this means to them.
How far do you have to go to educate the clients on the value?
Jesper Uldbjerg (P&O Ferrymasters + Unifeeder)
Large customers are pushing for this but with SME clients we need to support them in the process and help them to see the opportunities.
Most of the clients for P&O Ferrymasters are large cargo owners and they are expecting these services now. It shows we are on the right path, and they are really happy.
