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Survey Paper | Transport Studies | South Korea | Volume 12 Issue 12, December 2023
A Survey on User Requirements for Smart Container Development
Dulguun Banzragch | Hyung-Rim Choi | Jae-Joong Kim | Chae-Soo Kim
Abstract: A Smart Container refers to a new concept of container that promotes the safe transport of cargo by incorporating Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies such as IoT, artificial intelligence, and big data. It has functions to check cargo status inside of containers, to detect whether the door is open or closed, and to communicate the sensing and location information to the outside. Since Smart Container manufacturing costs are higher than general containers, it is strategically necessary to adjust the trade-off between increased cost burden and added value through customer service improvement. In this study, we tried to make a survey to define new functions to be added in Smart Containers, new services based on Smart Container information, and figure out users' willingness to additional cost burden. The result of this study will influence the function priorities of a Smart Container considering the tolerance of the cost burden of the user of the Smart Container, which is very important for successful commercialization. The study surveyed 104 container cargo owners and 172 logistics companies by telephone and visits. The surveys were conducted from November 18 to December 15, 2021. The research findings indicate that when assessing the envisioned functionalities of Smart Containers, the primary expectation is the real-time monitoring of cargo conditions within the container. Subsequently, the monitoring of container door openings and closings ranks second, followed by impact detection. The cargo owners (61.6%) expressed a reluctance to bear the additional expenses associated with the deployment of relatively costly Smart Containers for sea transportation. Similarly, shipping companies (69.2%) exhibited a negative inclination toward shouldering the supplementary costs. As shipping companies and shippers are negative about accepting additional costs due to Smart Containers, Smart Container developers must be very sensitive to development costs, so price differentiation through options is necessary. Additionally, in the early stages of commercialization, institutional support will be needed from the government to partially subsidize the purchase and operating costs of Smart Containers.
Keywords: Smart Container, User Requirement Survey, Cargo Status, Location Tracking
Edition: Volume 12 Issue 12, December 2023,
Pages: 269 - 276