Bromley, VP of Rail Client Services, Tideworks Technology talks intermodal
August 29, 2022
Tideworks’ Mark Bromley in an interview with AJOT talks about both the challenges and benefits derived by intermodal operations.
Mark Bromley, VP of Rail Client Services for Tideworks Technology, has been working in the ports side of the business for over two decades. When Seattle-based Tideworks, well-known for its marine terminal operating systems (TOS), decided to expand into the intermodal sector, Bromley switched over to intermodal. As he explained, Tideworks already had “synergies” with intermodal from its marine terminal operations, so expanding into intermodal was a logical step for the company, its customers, and Bromley.
AJOT: You’re operating now in a very different environment than say, even pre-COVID 19. And the current operational environment, which includes labor shortages, equipment shortages, and more, from your perspective, what do you see as the challenges and how do you optimize intermodal terminal operations in this new ecosystem?
Bromley: Understanding the challenges terminal operators face and what they need to succeed in this changing environment is definitely top of mind. Everybody’s trying to figure out. ‘Hey, what are the issues for the terminal operators?’ There is the equipment shortage, so, whether it is empty containers, chassis, you name it, terminal operators might not have the equipment that they need.
However, it’s really become a capacity issue. The footprint of these [intermodal] terminals doesn’t change a whole lot. It’s set. And in many cases, the intermodal facilities (originally) operated as wheeled facilities. They’ve tried to wheel up as much cargo as possible to make it easy to access and get cargo out the gate. And I think terminal operators are finding that as they put more containers to the ground, it’s going to be more of a challenge to figure out how to strategically stack them to avoid adding disruptions into the delivery process.
Wheeled [operations] work, but then you have to consider the equipment shortages like chassis and longer dwell times. Maybe you can’t wheel everything up as you wanted and now you have to ground it. As soon as you start doing that, it’s going to be a challenge to figure out how to strategically stack those boxes to avoid disruptions to your delivery process. It’s a constant set of problems they [the intermodal terminal operators] are trying to solve… So, that does lead to opportunities for software that can optimize and automate those processes for terminal operators.
AJOT: So, what does software do to optimize processes on the intermodal terminal? How can it address some of the capacity-related issues terminal operators are facing?
Bromley: Our core offering is a terminal operating system [TOS]. For some terminal operators, the main value-add of that TOS is inventory management. TOS is a work order execution-based system and a planning software for on and off the intermodal terminal, in and out of the yards. Those key components allow terminal operators to manage their efficiencies inside their terminal. And we’ve brought a lot of pieces…