Government Computer News
Tablets make Charleston port-able
Slate devices simplify logistics and speed shipments
Wireless tablet PCs help the port of Charleston, S.C., keep tabs on the thousands of tons of cargo that it handles every day. More than 2,000 trucks a day arrive with containers of agricultural products, consumer goods, machinery, metals, vehicles, chemicals and other payloads.
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Port workers at the dozen lanes entering the port area use tablets to enter information and paperwork data from truck drivers into the port’s automated Yard Management System. Workers then print a ticket for each container. When a truck arrives to pick up a container, crane operators use their wireless tablets to determine which container is to be collected and where it is located. Then they repack the stacks of containers to make sure that the right one is ready by the time the truck gets to that area of the facility.
As a result of the sheer volume of cargo and the regulations of state and federal governments, port officials face major logistics challenges. Aside from keeping track of the thousands of containers that enter and leave the port, they have to meet federal security and customs regulations in regard to the origin, contents and destination of each container. In addition, they have to make sure the freight moves efficiently, so that trucks aren’t kept waiting unnecessarily.
S. Todd Davis, network manager for the port, described Yard Management System, which was launched in 1998, as a real-time inventory system that tracks a container from the time it enters the port area until it leaves.
“Some truck drivers originally had a ‘change is bad’ attitude when we switched [from a paper system] to a computerized system,” Davis said. “But now they like it because it gets them moving faster, with fewer mistakes, than before.”
In deploying the system, port officials found that all tablet vendors are not alike. The original vendor didn’t keep up with advances in CPUs and RAM, which meant that the tablets weren’t as fast in handling information as the workers preferred, Davis said. Plus, the devices weren’t rugged enough to withstand the shocks and bumps of everyday use at the port.
It was also frustrating that the vendor didn’t have a single model that met all the worker needs. “Some had touch screens, some pen screens,” Davis said. This meant that the units weren’t interchangeable for any task.
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