How Billions of Dollars of Goods Get to You

[Voiceover] Shipping is crucial to the global economy,

and vital for getting us the stuff we want, when we want it.

But few of us every give any of this much thought.

The computer or phone that you're watching this one,

the clothes you're wearing, even the coffee you're drinking,

probably came by ship.

And the container ships that carry all that around

are amongst the largest vehicles ever built.

But dealing with their contents is a growing challenge.

Ports are running at full capacity,

and choke points mean delays.

This enormous ship is the Maersk Essex,

and it can hold up to 6500 of

these regular 40-foot long containers.

This is actually all holiday goods,

coming in for the season.

And if you were to take every one of

these containers off now, and lined them up on trucks,

they would stretch 112 miles.

That's the size of the problem.

And 80% of these containers will be lifted off

or more will be put back on, at this one port alone.

[Voiceover] The port of LA is the number one in the US

by container volume.

As you might guess, the lead up to the holidays,

and our crass consumerism,

makes this one of busiest periods.

A surge in containers can lead to bottlenecks,

and in the worst case scenario,

lines of ships out at sea,

laden with our potential purchases.

Now the port of LA is trying something new.

It's working with GE to capture as much data as possible,

and to share it as widely as possible.

They'll create an information portal,

to give everyone more planning time,

and to hopefully make everything running a little smoother.

You know typically the port terminal operators,

and all of the different parties in the process,

find out about the cargo on that ship, where it's going,

what its inbound destination is,

about 48 hours in advance of it hitting port.

You know tomorrow with the solution,

that data will be unlocked and be available

about two weeks in advance of the port.

[Voiceover] The pilot program for information sharing

will be run next year, for around two or three months.

But the hope is to prove how useful it is,

and of course keep it going.

It will take everyone playing together to work.

From the terminal operators, to the shipping companies,

to the customs authorities.

The port of LA will be the first to try such

an integrated system.

And something like it is going to be crucial

to keep our global supply chain moving.