VectorUSA and Cisco Team Up to Build a Fully Automated Container Terminal

The Port of Long Beach, California is one of the busiest in the world. And business is not slowing down. Matt Hunnicutt of Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT) knows exactly how big the challenge has become.

“On an average day,” says Hunnicutt, “we receive 10,000 different containers going in and out of this facility.”

That’s 10,000 containers loaded one by one from shore to ship, or from ship to truck, to train, or to storage lots. And now, mega-ships, each carrying up to 18,000 containers, are taking the lead in global trade. LBCT is now ready for any container ship, any size. Two years ago, the container terminal began building a new, fully automated, state-of-the-art super terminal. It was a massive logistical and technological project, involving a vast infrastructure of technology that was made possible by an ecosystem of Cisco partners.

VectorUSA was at the center of the massive endeavor. The Torrance, California-based technology integrator was the lead terminal services provider, tasked with integrating all the different technologies needed to transport, track, secure, document, and administrate the thousands of containers that pass through the terminal every day.

“The uniqueness of Long Beach Container Terminal is that everything is an endpoint on a network.” – Jeff Zukerman

By putting everything on the network and automating every step in the container’s journey, VectorUSA helped pioneer a transformation that is making a giant difference to LBCT’s bottom line. Costs will be lower and efficiency higher with safety improved – and ships are moving in and out of port five times faster.

“The uniqueness of Long Beach Container Terminal,” says Jeff Zukerman, VectorUSA’s executive vice president and co-founder, “is that everything is an endpoint on a network.”

Selecting the right Cisco partners with the right specializations to work together to make this all happen was an important part of VectorUSA’s responsibilities.

“There is not one individual that can do this by themselves,” says LBCT’s Hunnicutt. “It is a true partnership we see invested here.”

These days, that kind of collaboration is happening more and more across the Cisco Partner Ecosystem; different companies working side by side to achieve a common goal.

“As lead, you look for ecosystem partners that are solid, yet flexible,” explains Zukerman. “Team players who understand what the business is trying to achieve, and aren’t satisfied with anything less than seamless integration.”

The team VectorUSA put together was up to the job – the end result is proof.

“Ultimately all the partners’ goals,” Zukerman says, “was to get this operation up and running, show the world and America that it can be done.”