Port Maritime Solutions: Facilitating Container Weighing for Transportation

Interview with Baiju Shah, Director of Port Maritime Solutions

Could you give us an overview of your sector and tell us about your company?

Today, both in Kenya and globally, we generally use a lot of containerised goods; we use transport services a great deal, in order to transport those goods that are built and value-added, put into containers and sent all around the world. There is new regulation imposed by the International Maritime Organisation, setting forth safety regulations that require each exporter to have a verified gross mass certificate, i.e. an accurate weight of the container – not of the truck, but of the container. As a result, this whole aspect has pushed the export sector globally into some kind of confusion.

As I see it, this is the ‘Uber’ of the container or transportation world, in terms of obtaining the mentioned gross mass. By using and taking advantage of existing technology, we have innovated, while combining it with practical considerations.

Small exporters meet with many problems as their exports are sent off, so we decided to find ways to disrupt that market. From our end, we came up with a scenario which involved developing a new solution. This is a digital solution that allows for the weighing of the containers to fall more on the exporter rather than on the port. We have launched a mobile container-weighing solution on the market, which will enable individual companies to hire our services, in order to load and weigh the containers correctly. What happens after that, once we have weighed it using our mobile kit, is that the information is sent to our platform via a mobile network and then a notification is sent to the key stakeholders. These include, for instance, the maritime authorities, the ports themselves, the shipping companies and the shipper, as well as the importer or buyer themselves. All of them will be informed about of the verified gross mass weight of the container in question.

How does this help the shipping lines? It helps them to distribute weight around the ship appropriately, thereby avoiding many accidents. This is what Port Maritime Solutions is going to provide. There is currently chaos around the world, and this will be our contribution to the sector. In so doing, we are innovating and disrupting the market.

Do you have any competition on this front?

We have very little competition. Traditional weighbridges will continue to provide the service. But from our point of view, port reports show that these are not accurate. This was enforced on July 1st, but we decided not to launch on that date. Instead, we opted to delay our launch to a later date, in order to properly assess the market and the competition, as you cannot tell where your competition will be coming from. We are certain that we will enjoy success across Africa, but what we also realise that with the right publicity and organisation, we will also be able to position ourselves very successfully around the world.

As I see it, this is the ‘Uber’ of the container or transportation world, in terms of obtaining the mentioned gross mass. By using and taking advantage of existing technology, we have innovated, while combining it with practical considerations. For instance, our weighing scales use dry battery cells, rather than rechargeable cells. This means they are available anywhere and everywhere, which goes to show how we have paid due consideration to the lowest common denominator, while also providing a technologically-advanced solution, in order to arrive at an accurate container weight.

Do you think it will be easy for people to shift towards this more modern way of doing things?

They don’t have a choice. Mainly because this solution will avoid issues. For instance, if your container reaches the port and you have to fix anything, this will cost you a lot of money. But if you are able to fix the issue at source or at your warehouse, or close to your warehouse, the costs are lower.

I will illustrate this with an example from one of the shipping lines. They shipped out containers from Mombasa to South Africa. When these got to South Africa, these were found to be misaligned or overweight and they had to foot a bill of over $10,000 to fix the issue, while it could have been fixed for $100 at source. As you can see, there is a significant difference.

You are about to launch the service now, but do you already have clients lined up for exporting this information to other countries in the region?

Certainly. We have already agreed on an outline here in Kenya, we are currently out marketing the solution in Asia, we have spoken to about 18 port contacts, i.e. 18 counties in Asia that we are looking to bring on board, including India. We also plan to take this to 25 port countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is something we have already been discussing, while creating the know-how, together with the marketing and all the business development behind it.

That’s an ambitious plan. Are you looking for any type of partners or investors?

We are certainly looking for investors, and as we speak we are out in the market pitching our solution to a couple of investors, because we are able to fund the first country, but we would also be looking towards 30 to 40 more countries.

In a nutshell, what would you say to them as to why they should choose to do business with you? What makes you different?

What makes us different is the fact that we are using a disruptive technology platform, which brings the weighing closer to home, i.e. closer to the exporter. Furthermore, it is cashless, as it already involves a pre-paid model. We are very famous in Kenya for offering the M-Pesa prepay facility.

What are your big plans for the next 5 years? What would you like to have achieved by then?

In 5 years’ time, we hope to have achieved a franchise model and a minimum presence in 20 to 30 countries. But we could be in 150 countries if we are really successful, because the product is exportable globally.