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Agricultural 

Marketing 

Service

May 2023

This is a summary of “The Impact of New Information Technologies on U.S. Containerized Agricultural 

Exports” by Cyrus Ramezani and Chris Carr.1 This research and analysis received funding from USDA’s 

Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) through cooperative agreement number 20-TMTSD-CA-0007. The 

opinions and conclusions expressed are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the views of USDA 

or the Agricultural Marketing Service. The full report is available online at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/

papers.cfm?abstract_id=4014603.

WHAT IS THE ISSUE?

Recent advances in data collection and information-sharing technologies have the potential to streamline containerized 

agricultural exports, reduce costs, and facilitate real-time data sharing among agricultural export logistics providers. Despite 

the advantages these digital technologies offer, agricultural exporters and logistics providers have been slow to adopt 

them. Would-be users are often discouraged by a variety of challenges, including high initial costs, fears of losing control 

of proprietary data, and lack of coordination across the supply chain. Partly because of the new technologies’ barriers to 

entry, the agricultural export industry is deeply fragmented—characterized by many disparate systems that are not well 

connected. Plus, many firms still use “legacy systems” based on older software that is incompatible with information-sharing 

technologies.

HOW WAS THE STUDY CONDUCTED?

The methodology for this study was investigative in nature. First, the authors gathered the views of various stakeholders, 

such as exporters, truckers, port officials, maritime terminal staff, chassis providers, and technology companies. They also 

analyzed relevant reports and analyses, from government, vendors, and industry stakeholders. To better understand the 

products themselves, the authors viewed relevant product demos and gathered the experiences of end users. Finally, 

the authors participated in industry sponsored events (e.g., webinars and professional conferences) and engaged with 

researchers and journalists who focus on information-sharing technologies. 

1

 Cyrus Ramezani and Chris Carr are professors in California Polytechnic State University’s Orfalea College of Business. 

The Impact of New Information Technologies on U.S. 

Containerized Agricultural Exports (Summary)

Austin Hunt

REPORT SUMMARY
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WHAT DID THE STUDY FIND?

Integrating Agricultural Export Logistics Technologies

The study found enterprise resource planning systems, warehouse management systems, and transportation 

management systems all play key roles in the agricultural export supply chain. However, the use of these systems—

especially for small- and medium-size agricultural exporters—is highly fragmented and typically involves little to no 

communication between systems. This is especially true across the various nodes of the supply chain—e.g., among 

exporters, transportation equipment owners, ports, ocean carriers, trucking companies, and railroads. 

The study emphasized the need for integrating these fragmented systems to maximize and streamline communication 

among all the various supply-chain functions. The authors found application programming interfaces (APIs) could 

play a key role in this process by allowing software from different enterprise systems to communicate in real time, 

and in a less rigid fashion than legacy systems allow. If adopted across all participants in the supply chain, APIs would 

allow technology teams from all sides to reorient their integration strategies to make the system, as a whole, faster, 

and cheaper. One logical starting place seems to be establishing API connections between trucker transportation 

management systems and the enterprise resource planning systems used by the shippers, ports, terminals, railroads, 

chassis providers, and ocean carriers. Over the last few years, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have begun 

experimenting with API connections between drayage companies and marine terminals.

Some vendors are also looking to create a “holy grail” single logistics platform that integrates these systems to 

overcome the current information-disconnects. However, to achieve this goal will ultimately require coordination 

among not only technology providers and all the various supply chain nodes (including shippers, exporters, ports, 

marine terminals, chassis providers, etc.), but also banks, insurance companies, government agencies and their 

enterprise systems. Given the complexity involved, the authors noted it is unclear whether such a platform will 

continue to be developed in a way that fully meets the needs of agricultural exporters.2

Possible Benefits of the New Technologies

Chassis management. Currently, although chassis providers are frequently well integrated with ocean carriers and 

terminals, their communication is inefficient. The typical way chassis providers provide information to stakeholders, 

such as exporters and trucking companies, is through websites, mobile apps, and email. These passive communication 

systems are time consuming, as they require stakeholders to continually check for updated information. Another 

inefficiency of the current process lies in stakeholders’ inability to simultaneously book both a container and the 

chassis to carry it. Potentially, location-sharing devices attached to chassis could help to resolve these inefficiencies: 

the devices collect information on variables such as location, speed, direction, distance, tire pressure, and whether the 

chassis is mounted.

When the authors explored the feasibility of attaching location-sharing devices to chassis, they found chassis providers 

are deterred by both technical and financial constraints. From a technical perspective, it is unclear where on the 

chassis these devices would attach, given the non-standardized mix of existing chassis equipment, as well as the need 

to protect the devices from theft and from the wear of regular use (e.g., stacking and unstacking). Another technical 

hurdle is created by the scale of installing location-sharing devices on 20,000+ chassis that move continuously 

throughout the West Coast. Furthermore, because location-sharing devices are expensive, they have been used only 

for high-margin products, and have yet to be used with agricultural exports. So far, chassis providers and shippers 

agree that the benefits of location-sharing devices for hauling agricultural exports do not yet justify the costs.

Street Turns. “Street turns” represent a long-time, elusive industry goal that could be facilitated by better integrating 

data among links in the supply chain. A street turn (also sometimes called a “matchback”) is a maneuver that matches 

an import container move with an export container move to eliminate empty containers traveling to and from the 

port. The steps involve a carrier picking up a loaded import container; delivering it to its destination; and (instead of 

returning the empty container to the port) using it to pick up other export cargo before returning to the port.

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 An effort at the Federal level is the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW) program. 

FLOW is a government and industry partnership to exchange forward looking and near-time information between supply chain 

stakeholders (e.g., marine and surface transportation carriers, terminal operators, and warehousers) to provide a common picture of 

goods movement throughout the supply chain.
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By avoiding returning an empty container to the port of origin (as is often done), a successfully implemented street 

turn offers savings to the various parties involved—ocean carriers, shippers, truckers, etc. Better data integration 

among ocean carriers, trucking companies, and exporters could help make coordinating street turns less complicated. 

However, even with better data sharing, accomplishing a street turn, in practice, raises significant logistical obstacles. 

Several vendors offer technological products to facilitate street turns, but at this point, the authors found these 

technologies have remained more aspirational than proven. 

Recommendations

Based on the report findings, the authors propose the following recommendations to increase the industry’s rates of 

adopting data-sharing technologies: 

• Establish State/Federal Government funding for education and training events;

• Include technology, data sharing, and API integration in broader discussions about the state of supply 

chain infrastructure;

• Create common technology standards for the industry;3

• Start an agricultural cooperative for digital information technology; and

• Provide incentives for adopting new technologies. 

PREFERRED CITATION

Hunt, Austin. May 2023. The Impact of New Information Technologies on U.S. Containerized Agricultural

Exports (Summary). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service. Web.

<http://dx.doi.org/10.9752/TS375.05-2023>

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 The report specifically references the Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA). The DCSA aims to be the de facto technology 

standard-setting body for the container shipping industry. Examples of DCSA initiatives include electronic bill of lading (eBL), Internet 

of Things (IoT) for Smart Containers, and just-in-time port calls.