More companies are discovering the advantages of marine shipping, thanks to Hamilton Port Authority’s Marine Gateway online shipping portal, marinegateway.net.
As a new season kicks off, this innovative online tool is bringing more shippers on-board as users of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway. “We have a good thing going on the Seaway,” said Ian Hamilton, Vice President, Business Development and Real Estate for the Port Authority. “Marine routings can bring some pretty significant cost savings. Marine Gateway takes the legwork out of choosing marine, making ‘shipping by ship’ a real option for more users.”
The Marine Gateway portal is an online cargo-capacity matching service that helps make marine shipping easy and convenient. The portal fills a niche by highlighting unused vessel capacity for cargo owners and freight forwarders to consider, making it more viable to choose marine for smaller loads. Since the portal’s launch at the end of 2013, more than 60 shippers of bulk cargo and project cargo like heavy equipment have registered as portal users, along with shipping lines and marine service providers.
When shipping lines have room available aboard vessels travelling to or from Hamilton and global destinations, they can post their excess capacity, notifying cargo owners of availability. In turn, cargo owners can post cargo they need shipped, and request confidential quotes from a list of prequalified suppliers, including shipping lines, stevedores, and 3PLs. Cargo owners, shipping lines, and other marine service suppliers can go to Marinegateway.net to join. The service is free to use and takes just a few seconds to sign up.
“We’re very pleased with the response from the industry – shippers, shipping lines, and marine service suppliers alike. Now is the time to jump on-board, to take advantage of the demand that will be out there,” said Hamilton. “By finding cargo for some of this otherwise unused marine capacity, Marine Gateway delivers a win-win for cargo owners and shipping lines. We’re increasing the number of shippers choosing marine, and boosting the volume of commodities and goods moving through the Seaway,” said Hamilton.
View the video at hamilton.marinegateway.net/ to learn more about how the portal works.