Maersk Line’s 2016 investments in new reefer container equipment are adding 14,800 reefers to the world’s largest reefer fleet of more than 270,000 containers. While part of the reefers replace older equipment, the investment will expand the reefer fleet and prepare for Maersk Line’s future growth in the reefer segment.

Adding to the 30,000 reefers acquired in 2015, the investments lowers the average age of Maersk Line’s reefer fleet to 7.9 years. This is significantly below the industry average of 12 years as recently reported by Drewry.

“We continue to invest and modernize our reefer fleet to include the latest technologies in supply chain visibility and cargo care,” said Shereen Zarkani, Head of Reefer Management, Maersk Line. “With the new equipment we will offer even stronger products across the reefer portfolio, enhancing transparency and care to our customers’ perishable products across Maersk Line’s extensive network.”

The new reefers feature built-in Remote Container Management (RCM) technology. It turns each reefer into a digitally connected device and provides enhanced visibility and care to cargo across Maersk Line’s entire reefer fleet.

Zarkani said it is the company’s plan to give customers access to this technology in 2017. “Reefer visibility only makes sense if applied to the entire fleet,” she said. “So with more than 270,000 reefers in operation it has been a massive undertaking to get to where we are today. Since we launched RCM in 2015 we matured our internal processes and gained operational experience in handling the data. We have now entered the next stage and will be ready to offer this enhanced data visibility to our customers in the coming year.”

Another key milestone before that launch in 2017 will include a customer facing IT-platform as well as customer pilots.