Have our lives less value than a container nowadays?

In theory, our lives do have more value than a container, but in reality technology proves a different point.

As a fact, tracking a container anywhere over the ocean and overland seems more profitable than tracking an airplane in the air. This can be explained by the high number of business partners offering GPS solutions to track containers. Their services range from monitoring the opening and closing of containers doors, following the temperature for reefer containers to checking that the containers have not undergone any strong movements.

By looking at these functionalities, it is easily understandable that tracking solutions have a strong added value for companies using already sea transportation like business dealing with high value electronic equipment or wine. In addition, as soon as these solutions will be widely implemented, sea transport systems would be able to increase their share on other markets such as healthcare, pharmaceutical products or food industry.

Everything to say is that GPS container tracking represents a safe business in the next years and will create revenue growth in the transport industries.

However, understanding that the technology means exist and could be easily implemented worldwide on thousands of containers for a fair price, I feel a sudden concern about the mishandling investigation into disappearance of flight MH370.

After 18 months, a high-cost well-equipped airplane holding 239 persons is nowhere to be found in a reality context in which a container with fresh flowers can be accurately tracked everywhere around the world. How is this now leaning the value balance?

Implementing such a tracking system on each airplane, possibly an independent tracking system on which pilots and crew members could not have access, can have a high cost. Sadly, we can understand why short-term airlines are not pushing for this improvement.

So what would be the solution? Waiting for a worldwide regulation that would set tracking system as a standard? Or waiting instead for insurance companies to increase the insurance premium for the airlines that have not implemented such tracking system on each aircraft?

I would go to a greater length and propose inverting the paradigm: for an airline, tracking system implementation shall not be seen as an operational cost, but as market disruption.

In a time when all airlines are almost equal in term of services, fair/poor service in economy and 5 stars service in business, I would personally choose as preferred airlines the ones that guarantee that all aircrafts can be tracked everywhere on an accurate basis.

What about you? What do you find more important? Knowing the exact location of your 20 $€ parcel you just purchased online or being able to monitor and recreate the footsteps of your loved ones up in the air?

• Written by

  Patrice Thoquet