Industries
Real-time visibility across ports, corridors, customs, fleets and warehouses, with one shipment record that carriers, forwarders, shippers and agencies can trust.
01How the work happens today
A single shipment across an African corridor touches many parties. A shipper books a forwarder. A shipping line brings a container to a port. Terminal operators, port authorities, customs and clearing agents each hold a piece of the record. Trucks leave with drivers who report by phone or WhatsApp. Border posts, weighbridges and inspection agencies add steps. Inland, warehouses and last mile couriers use their own tools. Many of these systems are closed, some are paper, and few share identifiers.
The result is delay and uncertainty. A container is cleared, but the trucker does not know. A truck waits at a border because a document was not matched. Fleets run half empty on the return leg. Warehouses cannot see inbound shipments until they arrive. Customers get status from phone calls. Costs from dwell time, demurrage and informal payments are hard to measure and harder to cut. When something goes wrong, nobody can reconstruct what happened.
02A starting model for the sector
13 core things
The nouns of the sector. Each object has an identity, properties and a history, and maps to records in the source systems.
8 core relationships
How the objects connect. Links turn separate tables into a graph that people and agents can walk.
6 governed actions
What people and approved agents may do. Each action has rules, an approver where needed and a log entry.
03What changes on the ground
Situation
Containers sit in a port for days after arrival. Importers, clearing agents and carriers each wait for another, and nobody sees the whole chain.
What it does
Port, customs, carrier and haulier events attach to the container. The system shows what is blocking release and who owns the next step, and nudges the owner by WhatsApp or email.
Human decides
Clearing agents and importers decide how to resolve holds. Authorities keep control of release decisions.
04Sources to connect
We read from your existing systems first and write back only through approved actions. Every source has a named owner. Where connectivity is weak or records are on paper, we plan for queued sync and OCR with human review.
Free 30 minutes with an engineer.
05Laws that shape the design
| Country | Law | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Nigeria | NDPA 2023 | Driver, consignee and customer data are personal data, and tracking requires a defined purpose and safeguards. |
| Kenya | Data Protection Act 2019 | Location and identity data for drivers and consignees need a lawful basis and security measures. |
| South Africa | POPIA | Vehicle and driver tracking involves personal information, with duties on notice and security. |
| Rwanda | Law on Personal Data Protection 2021 | Transfers of shipment data containing personal data outside the country may have conditions. |
| Trade rules | Customs and regional trade regimes | Rules for transit, declarations and data exchange differ by country and corridor. |
Customs, transport licensing and regional trade agreements vary widely. These are examples only. Confirm with counsel and customs advisers for your corridors. Examples only, not legal advice. Confirm with counsel.
06How each product serves this sector
Model plane
Models shipments, containers, vehicles, ports and borders as one network and drives the control tower, ETA and exception views.
Trust plane
Controls what shippers, carriers, agents and agencies can see on a shipment, so each party gets its own scoped view of the same record.
Control plane
Keeps dispatch and customer agents inside approved actions, such as notifying a consignee, and requires approval for rerouting or releases.
Runtime plane
Runs the platform near ports and hubs and syncs from drivers and depots with weak coverage.
Observation plane
Keeps a tamper-evident log of handoffs, document checks and automated suggestions, which supports claims and disputes.
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Trace crops and inputs from smallholder farms through cooperatives, processors and export, with the farm, finance and logistics data needed to plan, lend and prove origin.
Give informal merchants, distributors and marketplaces a shared view of stock, sales, payments and demand, so they can restock sooner, get credit and serve customers better.
A live model of plants, grids, mines and field crews, linking assets, work orders, safety and emissions so operators can maintain, report and respond with less guesswork.
Experience you can lean on
Immersed in technology and across many different verticals, so the people on your project have done this before.
Logistics and supply chain
Tell us the problem. An engineer, not a salesperson, answers.
Real-time visibility across ports, corridors, customs, fleets and warehouses, with one shipment record that carriers, forwarders, shippers and agencies can trust.
