0:00

Green carrier evaluation and

0:00

route optimizations is something which

0:05

a lot of companies can work towards. And in fact, according to a recent

0:07

McKinsey study, 50% of the carbon

0:13

emission goals that the companies have,

0:13

can be achieved just by switching to

0:18

better routes, or better suppliers of

0:18

cargo only if they had this information

0:25

Good morning, good

0:25

afternoon, or good evening,

0:27

wherever you are in the world. This is the Sustainable Supply Chain

0:29

Podcast, the number one podcast

0:32

focusing on sustainability and supply

0:32

chains, and I'm your host, Tom Raftery.

0:39

Hi, everyone, and welcome to a

0:39

brand new chapter of our journey.

0:42

This is the very first episode of

0:42

the Sustainable Supply Chain podcast.

0:46

And I'm your host, Tom Raftery. And I'm thrilled to be embarking on

0:48

this exciting new path with all of you.

0:52

Before we kick off today's show,

0:52

I'd like to welcome a new supporter

0:55

of the podcast, Alvaro Aguilar.

0:58

Alvaro signed up over the past couple

0:58

of days to support the podcast.

1:01

Thank you so much for that, Alvaro. Much appreciated.

1:04

Now, As we delve into this world of

1:04

sustainable business, an area that's

1:10

not just important but essential

1:10

for everyone, I want to emphasize

1:14

how crucial and transformative

1:14

our discussions here will be.

1:18

We're talking about creating a

1:18

future that is not just prosperous,

1:22

But also responsible and green.

1:25

For those of you who've been

1:25

with me throughout the Digital

1:28

Supply Chain podcast, thank you

1:28

for continuing this journey.

1:31

And for our new listeners, you're

1:31

joining at just the right time.

1:35

Sustainability has always been a

1:35

passion of mine, deeply rooted in

1:39

my love of nature and technology. And now more than ever, it's time

1:41

to bring that passion to the fore,

1:45

exploring how technology can drive

1:45

sustainability in supply chains globally.

1:51

So, if you haven't already, make

1:51

sure to follow the podcast, tell your

1:57

friends, colleagues, family, anyone

1:57

who's passionate about creating

2:03

a sustainable future as we are. And don't hesitate to reach out with your

2:06

comments, suggestions, or just to say, hi!

2:11

Your engagement is what truly

2:11

brings this podcast to life.

2:15

As ever hit me up on Twitter, hit me up on

2:15

LinkedIn, email me Tom Raftery at outlook.

2:21

com. So, let's kick off this journey together,

2:23

making every link in our supply chains,

2:27

a step towards a more sustainable world.

2:32

Now, With me on the podcast today,

2:32

I have my special guest, Gautam.

2:37

Gautam, welcome to the podcast. Would you like to introduce yourself?

2:41

Thank you, Tom. It's absolute pleasure to be

2:42

here and great to be on the

2:45

Sustainable Supply Chain podcast. Yes.

2:48

So about myself, I am Gautam Jai n.

2:51

I belong to the city of country of

2:51

India, and Basically, when I was in

2:56

college, I got the, I was lucky enough

2:56

to get into the best college of the

3:01

country, which is IIT Delhi and I

3:01

graduated in computer science from there.

3:05

So while in college, I met my

3:05

co-founders, Chitransh, Mehul, and

3:09

Ayush, and we always had that dream,

3:09

you know, at that time during our

3:14

college, like Flipkart, housing.com

3:14

were the big startup poster boys in

3:18

the country and they were making all

3:18

the news and we were inspired by them.

3:22

You're like, why can't we make our

3:22

company, which will also go big?

3:26

So we start in third year of

3:26

college, we started Plat, which

3:30

was a broker to broker marketplace,

3:30

which was a re in real estate domain.

3:35

So by that time we had graduated

3:35

housing.com, which was one of

3:40

the large companies at that time. They gave us, gave us an

3:41

acquisition offer, and we

3:43

decided to join forces with them.

3:45

Nice.

3:46

So we, we worked in

3:46

Housing.com for one year and, then we,

3:50

at that time we left housing.com and

3:50

we were running a small side business.

3:54

In that small side business,

3:54

we were buying goods from China

3:56

and selling them in the US. So buying on alibaba.com, selling on

3:58

amazon.com, we realized that it was not

4:04

the buying and selling, but actually

4:04

the transfer of goods from China to

4:08

US, which took most of our time, most

4:08

of our energy, and a lot of our costs.

4:13

Right. So we reached out to freight

4:13

forwarder's websites.

4:15

We found out what they are

4:15

giving, and we found there's a

4:18

lot of discrepancy in prices. We found that like once the shipment

4:20

was underway, we couldn't, we could

4:24

only track the milestone level data. We could not track where

4:25

our like a hundred thousand

4:28

dollars worth of shipment is. While we could track our food via

4:29

Swiggy and like cabs via Uber, which

4:34

is only a few dollars worth, right? We can track them in real time . So

4:36

we got used to the space, being

4:41

from technology background, we

4:41

thought, can we do something in

4:45

the international logistics space?

4:47

So we quit Housing. I in interned in a freight

4:49

forwarding company for, six months

4:52

to learn about the industry, and

4:52

then we decided to start GoComet.

4:56

So we started GoComet, and now we are,

4:56

about seven years into the making.

5:01

And I would say that now, like

5:01

fast forward seven years, we have

5:05

customers like Unilever, customers

5:05

like Koch Industries, Sony, Honda,

5:09

Centra, like John Deere, Motul, who

5:09

use our platform and they manage

5:14

their entire international logistics

5:14

through through GoComet platform.

5:19

Nice. And just, you know, to set a bit of a,

5:20

a context for people, what is it that

5:26

these customers you have are managing,

5:26

when they're using your platform?

5:32

Sure. So at Go Come, we say we are the

5:32

world's number one easiest to use

5:37

supply chain visibility platform, right?

5:39

So number one, easiest to use is not

5:39

set by us, but by industry peers.

5:43

And like the software websites.

5:46

This in the supply chain, visibility

5:46

is what we provide through the

5:50

entire processes of logistics.

5:53

So when the company's logistics

5:53

department, they think that, okay,

5:57

I'm planning to do a shipment. Next month, or next quarter, or next

5:59

year at that time, starting from that

6:04

till they have procured the freights,

6:04

they have tracked their shipments,

6:08

they have like the documents managed

6:08

through stakeholders, document

6:12

coordination, and then the invoices,

6:12

like when the invoices come from freight

6:17

forwarders, they have to be audited.

6:20

They have to be paid. And, and the reporting has to happen.

6:23

So during the entire process is what

6:23

we have, like four major products and

6:28

four market intelligence products.

6:30

So that's what companies use us for.

6:34

Okay. And what are the, what functionality

6:34

do these products give your

6:41

customers that, you know, make

6:41

you the number one platform?

6:46

Sure. Thanks Tom. So the main, the main benefit that the

6:48

customers get is, for example, a big

6:53

challenge which companies faced before

6:53

coming to GoComet was like, they're doing

6:56

500 shipments or like 5,000 shipments

6:56

every month via 15 different carriers

7:03

and 10 different freight forwarders. Now these carriers, when they have to

7:05

know where the shipments are, these

7:09

carriers and freight forwarders would

7:09

all give results in different formats.

7:12

Many carriers would just ask them to come

7:12

on the website and track their shipments.

7:16

So Go Comet gives them a single

7:16

window where they don't have to track.

7:20

We have the backend integrations. They just share which of their

7:22

shipments are they have booked

7:25

and rest, everything we do. We automatically track the shipments

7:27

instead of like, they having to track

7:31

500 shipments, 10 times each shipment

7:31

during the month like 5,000 times.

7:35

Instead of that, they just put it once

7:35

on GoComet and we give single window

7:39

platform to easily know the, which

7:39

of the 515 shipments are delayed,

7:44

which I need to focus on as a VP of

7:44

logistics I can do exception management

7:50

and planning by exception rather

7:50

than I'm letting my customers tell me

7:54

which shipments are delayed for them.

7:57

Okay. Nice, nice. And obviously, well, this is the

7:58

Sustainable Supply Chain podcast,

8:04

so how are you helping customers

8:04

with their sustainability goals?

8:11

Great. So, sustainability is a big

8:12

important part of Gocomet and, how

8:16

we are helping companies do it. So before I go into how GoComet

8:18

does it, let me share what

8:53

companies are doing until now. So that's what we have seen.

8:57

Now, the good thing is that the company's

8:57

logistics department, because many of the

9:02

customers that we have are the customers

9:02

who are like publicly listed and either

9:06

SEC has asked them, or the governments,

9:06

as per Paris agreement have asked them

9:09

to goals, according to like they have

9:09

to be carbon neutral by 2040 or 2050.

9:15

And many have many have like

9:15

self committed goals as well.

9:18

Now, the good thing is that the logistics

9:18

departments also have targets that they

9:24

have to know, they have to present that

9:24

how much they are meeting their logistics,

9:29

their sustainability targets, and how

9:29

much carbon emission they're doing

9:32

because ocean shipping and air shipping.

9:35

Both are worlds, like very

9:35

large part of, carbon emissions.

9:40

And they are like very notorious

9:40

in that, in, in the ocean

9:43

shipping and air shipping. Right. So they, so the current state is

9:44

that logistics companies, one of

9:49

the companies I was, I, like we

9:49

were, we were, we were working with.

9:52

They were calculating and estimating

9:52

their carbon emission spend by taking

9:59

the annual freight spend last year.

10:02

Right. So it's like, actually it

10:03

was that rough, an estimate.

10:06

It's like actually trying to

10:06

lose weight by taking your

10:11

annual spend on food last year. Right. So, uh, that's the current

10:15

state companies don't know.

10:17

They have only high level estimates. Even if they ask their carriers

10:19

and freight forwarders, they give

10:22

a lot of unaudited data and in

10:22

different formats because everyone

10:26

has their own format, right? So companies cannot accurately track

10:28

how much carbon emissions they are

10:34

doing, what actions they can take

10:34

to reduce the carbon emission.

10:40

At GoComet, we have the tools starting

10:40

from planning and when the shipment

10:44

is executed to tell the customers

10:44

and share exactly, because we are

10:50

accredited, we are partner Loon is

10:50

accredited by GLEC and we share the

10:53

carbon emissions based on the latest

10:53

carbon emission factors of the vessels

10:58

that will be used to do the shipments.

11:00

Which will add up and share with them

11:00

that okay, if they do shipment via the one

11:05

carrier, that how much emissions it'll be. If they do by second, how much it'll be.

11:09

It also calculates annually

11:09

how much they have spent on it.

11:12

So we are seeing that trend where just

11:12

like companies have a cost budget,

11:17

they also will have, are starting to

11:17

have a CO2 budget that how much carbon

11:24

emissions budget they can spend on

11:24

each shipment so that they, and we

11:28

enable them to choose the shipments

11:28

carrier according to that budget.

11:33

Okay. Nice. So taking a step back on this, how are

11:34

you calculating those carbon emissions?

11:43

Sure. So the carbon emissions are

11:43

calculated because we know we

11:46

are tracking the shipments. We know where it originated from, where

11:47

it will go, where it is going to go.

11:51

So we know the exact

11:51

distance, exact route.

11:54

We also know the vessels it'll

11:54

take and how many trans shipments

11:57

does, are going to be there. We know that, so by the vessel,

11:59

we know how, what is the carbon

12:03

emission factor for that vessel? Which, which is based on the fuel

12:05

type it is using, how large the

12:10

vessel is, what type of engine they

12:10

have, which leads to a factor of

12:14

like per kilometer, per ton of cargo.

12:17

What will be the carbon emissions

12:17

for this kind of vessel.

12:20

So you multiply that by the, the

12:20

weight in the container and the

12:24

distance that is traveling will give

12:24

the carbon emissions for that journey.

12:29

Okay. Does the speed of the vessel

12:29

come into account as well?

12:33

Oh, not a, not a lot

12:33

actually, because, I, I don't think

12:36

that comes into picture a lot.

12:38

Okay. Okay, because I, I had read somewhere

12:39

that the carriers are modifying the

12:44

speed of their vessels, reducing the

12:44

speed of their vessels to reduce the

12:48

fuel consumption, which of course would

12:48

be a proxy for the carbon emissions.

12:54

You are right, you're right. So all of that factors actually come into

12:55

the annual carbon emission factor that

13:00

comes in, and accredited by GLEC because,

13:00

that gets calculated yearly based on what

13:07

the, how the vessel performed last year. You also have to see what is the age

13:08

of vessel because the engines have

13:13

aged by one more year every year. So you calculate based on that whether

13:14

the maintenance was done properly or not.

13:18

Secondly, you see a lot of

13:18

congestions these days, Tom, right?

13:22

So when you see a lot of congestions,

13:22

the engines have to be on.

13:25

They are on, and the ship is waiting,

13:25

which means it's consuming fuel,

13:28

although it's not covering any distance. So all those factors come in, come in,

13:30

like, and right now the seas in, in

13:34

the Suez Canal, Red Sea, there is a

13:34

disruption and we are seeing a lot of

13:37

vessels in, because we are tracking,

13:37

more than a million shipments, like

13:40

1.2 million shipments every year. So we know how many ships are there in the

13:42

sea, how many are waiting, how many are

13:47

just anchored there to be communicated,

13:47

what are the next steps for them?

13:51

So that increases the fuel consumption,

13:51

the uncertainties in the supply chain.

13:56

Okay. And the, the disruption in the Red Sea is

13:56

that, is that because of the, uh, Houthis

14:01

Rebels out of Yemen attacking ships?

14:04

Uh, that's right. So it's, it's, it's because of

14:05

the rebels attacking the ships.

14:09

It's because the, the tensions are

14:09

escalating with, with Israel, with Egypt.

14:14

So, you know, so, uh. The geopolitical scenario there, is

14:16

very tough actually for any large

14:20

company because they are risking their

14:20

entire vessels, which are worth like

14:23

mil billions of dollars and billions of

14:23

dollars worth of cargo on top of them.

14:27

The alternate route is that they

14:27

have to go via like the Cape

14:30

of Good Hope in South Africa.

14:32

So that's, that's there in fact, you

14:32

know, so this is a very surprising news,

14:37

uh, is that like in 1967 when, the Israel

14:37

and Egypt were at war, so they, Egypt

14:45

closed the Suez Canal for eight years.

14:49

Right.

14:49

And, you know, there were

14:49

no shipments happening at that time,

14:52

through Suez Canal for eight long years.

14:54

And, it can be a very big challenge

14:54

for the industry if the geopolitical

14:59

scenario goes in that direction. Let's hope not.

15:02

But this is one of the big things which

15:02

can pressurize the countries to do

15:06

something which they don't want to do.

15:08

Yeah. And both canals are in trouble

15:08

at the moment because the Panama

15:13

Canal is suffering from drought.

15:16

So the levels of the Panama Canal are low.

15:18

It, a lot of people might, might not be

15:18

aware, but the Panama Canal is, is fed

15:22

from freshwater lakes, so the the levels

15:22

of it are, are based on actual rainfall.

15:29

It's not, it's not as

15:29

maritime as you might think.

15:32

And so the, the, the Panama Canal

15:32

is in trouble because of droughts.

15:35

So the amount of vessels going through

15:35

are reduced, the size of vessels

15:39

going through are reduced, and now

15:39

the Suez canal is also in trouble.

15:43

And this could have big implications for

15:43

the mileage, to your point that vessels

15:51

have to do, if they have to go around

15:51

the cape of Good hope around the, the

15:54

bottom of South Africa and or around the

15:54

south, the southern tip of South America,

15:59

you know, that would add, that would add

15:59

time to shipments, but it would also add

16:03

to the amount of fuel they're using and

16:03

therefore the increased carbon emissions.

16:07

So, yeah, let, let's hope this

16:07

is resolved quickly enough.

16:13

I agree. I agree. It adds thousands of kilometers to the

16:14

journey, which can be done easier, so

16:18

can be done easier, and can can be done

16:18

faster as well in lesser cost as well.

16:23

So if I'm a logistics

16:23

manager using your platform, Gautam,

16:27

I can at the moment choose my carrier

16:27

based on their reliability and based on

16:34

their pricing, but I'll also be able to

16:34

do it based on their carbon footprint.

16:40

Thanks Tom. So if you are a logistics manager, and

16:41

if you're not using GoComet, then even

16:47

the reliability index is something that

16:47

you will not have for the carriers.

16:52

Let let me show what I mean, by that.

16:55

So the As. Okay.

16:58

So as you can see, the just.

17:05

So on our platform, we have built,

17:05

uh, this is the sailing schedules

17:10

where you can actually see the sailing

17:10

schedules of all different carriers.

17:14

You can see what is the transit time. You can see what is the departure date,

17:16

arrival date, how many trans shipments

17:19

it's going to go through, and what are

17:19

the routes it'll, it is going to take.

17:23

Now this data

17:24

Let me, let me hold you. Let me hold you a second there

17:25

Gautam cos just for people who are

17:28

listening to this, Gautam is just

17:28

showing, sharing a screen here.

17:33

So, be aware Gautam, not everyone

17:33

is, is watching this on YouTube.

17:36

And for people listening, there is

17:36

a YouTube version of this, which

17:39

is linked to in the comments, and

17:39

you can check it out afterwards.

17:42

Sorry. Proceed. Go Gautam.

17:45

Thank you, Tom. So, this data of the various carriers

17:46

like MSC, CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd,

17:52

Hyundai is available on the

17:52

websites which carriers publish.

17:56

However, since we are tracking so

17:56

many shipments, we know what is

18:01

the reliability of the a particular

18:01

carrier on a particular route.

18:05

This route we are talking

18:05

about, let's say, let's take an

18:08

example, Shanghai to Los Angeles. So the data currently share shares that

18:10

the reliability of carriers is calculated

18:16

based on the number of on-time arrivals.

18:19

So this particular carrier has only 32%

18:19

arrivals on time, which means that like

18:25

68% of the time, your shipments will

18:25

not arrive when they were supposed to.

18:31

And the average deviation is five days.

18:33

The average ET changes is one time.

18:36

So you can see that which are the

18:36

most reliable and the, uh, most, uh,

18:40

unreliable carriers on a particular

18:40

route for actually taking the decision

18:46

that these are the, these are the,

18:46

uh, vessels and the shipments I

18:49

want to do take for this route. Also, is there the price?

18:53

Because the price is a one factor. Reliability is one factor.

18:57

Price is a second factor, and the

18:57

third factor is sustainability.

19:00

So in the price factor you can

19:00

see that what are the price ranges

19:04

and how it has changed over time. This is the industry benchmark.

19:08

We take the top 10 prices submitted on a

19:08

particular route or a particular country.

19:14

And those are shared here, as an index,

19:14

which we call GoComet Freight Index, to

19:20

help you see that whether your prices are

19:20

lower or higher than that price, right?

19:25

So the very easy to, to check that, it's

19:25

like we have made it available for free.

19:29

Uh, you go to gocomet.com and on

19:29

market intelligence tab, you can

19:34

see the smart schedules to see the

19:34

pricing and to see the schedules.

19:39

Right. The third factor which

19:40

comes is the sustainability.

19:43

We are building, we are integrating

19:43

our sustainability tool with the

19:48

sailing schedules, smart schedules,

19:48

where companies can see that which

19:52

carrier has lower and higher emissions.

19:55

Now, using this data, you can see that

19:55

some carriers have like up to 80% more

20:04

emissions, like up, you can save up to

20:04

80% more, in carbon emissions if you're

20:09

choosing one carrier over the other. You would also want to know, so using

20:11

the three factors of like reliability,

20:15

carbon emissions, and the price, you

20:15

can choose that which is the best suited

20:20

for your shipment for your customer.

20:24

Okay. And just on this, this one particular

20:24

route, you're saying that there are some

20:29

people who have a CO2 emissions of less

20:29

than a half a ton, and others who are

20:36

above three and a, well, 3.45 tons is,

20:36

is the highest I see there, correct?

20:42

That's correct. Only from this available data

20:43

there might be more carriers.

20:45

Yes.

20:47

Wow. I mean, that's an enormous difference.

20:49

Three, three and a half tons

20:49

down to less than half a ton,

20:54

That's right. And probably the reason for

20:54

this is because there are two

20:57

trans shipments in that data. So, in that carrier, so in that route,

20:59

so when you're using via that route,

21:03

like it has to go to one place and then

21:03

it goes like get transferred to another

21:07

vessel, transferred to a third vessel. And, uh, also adds up in that

21:09

transit time, which you can

21:13

Okay.

21:13

scheduled section.

21:14

Okay. Interesting. Yeah, yeah. No, that's, that's, that's fascinating.

21:18

And, so have you seen a lot of

21:18

demand for this functionality within

21:26

your product from your customers?

21:29

Oh yes, absolutely. So, actually, we have customers

21:31

like Centra, customers like Motul

21:35

who have adopted this already and

21:35

they are using this to budget for

21:41

how much they can spend on carbon

21:41

emissions, for a particular month.

21:45

So our platform uses AI to actually

21:45

calculate how much you have spent

21:49

and to predict that how much with

21:49

the current rate, if you don't change

21:54

anything, how much you're going to be

21:54

spend spending towards end of the year.

21:57

So they can see that whether they

21:57

want to make any changes there.

22:02

And would they have

22:02

historic data available to them?

22:07

So would they be able to say, well, two

22:07

years ago for this amount of shipments, my

22:12

carbon footprint was this, but this year

22:12

it's this much less or this much higher

22:17

You are correct. You are correct. So this much less or higher depends on

22:19

how much data when a company starts using.

22:24

So all the data on GoComet, they can

22:24

actually check and see the trends from

22:28

this when they started using the platform. There are customers who has

22:30

been using, who have been using GoComet for more than seven years.

22:35

So for them, all that data will be

22:35

available to see that, okay, I was

22:38

spending this much, now I'm spending

22:38

this much in carbon emissions, right?

22:42

And this is my target. Whether I met my targets

22:42

every year or not.

22:45

Okay. Wow. And so, I can see then With, I

22:47

mean, we're, we're shortly after

22:53

Cop 28 and now fossil fuels are,

22:53

we're, we're, we're saying we're

22:57

transitioning away from fossil fuels. And fossil fuels are what are

23:00

powering most of these vessels,

23:04

if not all of these vessels still. So the the logistics companies have

23:06

gotta be sitting up taking notice of

23:16

this and saying to themselves, okay,

23:16

I need to get my emissions down.

23:21

This is one of the few platforms available

23:21

to them to allow them, you know, choose

23:29

their shipments based on their carbon

23:29

footprint amongst other factors, correct?

23:34

That's correct, Tom. That's correct. The biggest challenge

23:36

that we see on ground.

23:39

Now it's different from a

23:39

challenge which is top down.

23:42

So, top down, the goals are set. However, we need to give the decision

23:44

making authority and power to

23:49

the one person who is making that

23:49

decision that which carrier or which

23:53

route will this shipment go on? So until that person has the visibility,

23:55

they cannot make a better decision.

23:59

And the estimate will be back to the

23:59

same thing that annual costs, spend

24:04

will then be used to see how much

24:04

carbon emissions we did, which is a

24:07

very, very vague estimate and cannot

24:07

tell whether we are going towards

24:11

a better and greener supply chain.

24:14

Yeah. Yeah. If the logistics managers are cognizant

24:15

of this and start using this platform

24:25

in this way to get their emissions down,

24:25

that's going to put massive pressure

24:29

on the shipping companies to change out

24:29

their ships, make them more sustainable,

24:35

or be prepared to lose a lot of business.

24:39

I agree, Tom, and that is

24:39

the reason why . the Paris Agreement is

24:44

there so that everyone who is actually

24:44

like, it's, it's a, it should, there

24:49

should be a pressure on everyone who is

24:49

on the planet to become more sustainable

24:54

and become more carbon neutral. And I think when more carrier data

24:55

gets available, like what, how much

24:59

exact emissions will be there, then

24:59

along with cost, it'll become a factor.

25:04

And over time we will see companies

25:04

spending more in R&D just like

25:09

the automobile companies are now

25:09

spending from the last few years.

25:12

They're spending more in electric

25:12

engine, electric motor R&D, and we are

25:17

getting better results than, than the

25:17

diesel and the gasoline engines, right?

25:23

So that's how we imagine the world

25:23

will go into where like, let's hope

25:27

what we will see a major majority

25:27

acceptance of electric motors

25:32

even in the world while shipping. So that's, that's what we hope for

25:36

Fantastic. Fantastic. Yeah, no, this, this is,

25:38

this is really interesting.

25:42

Are the shippers, Are the, are the

25:42

shippers, are the likes of the, the

25:46

Maersks and the Hapag Lloyds and et

25:46

cetera, are they seeing a shift towards

25:52

more sustainable transportation in the

25:52

demand from their customers as a, as

25:55

a consequence of these kind of things?

25:58

Oh yes, absolutely. For example, one big event and

25:59

transition happened towards sustainable

26:04

movement was the low sulfur surcharge,

26:08

which was implemented by these

26:08

carriers, uh, by the carriers around

26:12

2019, 2020, when a regulation came

26:12

that you cannot have more than

26:16

0.1% sulpher content in your fuel.

26:19

So the companies had to spend more like

26:19

Maersk and like the shipping lines had

26:24

to spend more on probably cleaning the

26:24

fuel or probably like reducing, its

26:30

like treating it to reduce its sulpher

26:30

content so that the content, so that it

26:33

becomes accepted under the new norms.

26:36

So they passed that cost and it

26:36

was, like very big thing at a time

26:40

to, to the, to for the shippers

26:40

because their cost increased by like

26:44

a hundred or one $50 per shipment.

26:46

and, that was at that time about

26:47

like 10% increase in the freight

26:50

costs, of low sulpher surcharge.

26:52

So definitely that change is happening

26:52

and now we don't see that, for sulfur.

26:56

Now we are seeing that's the same thing

26:56

for carbon and that will definitely

27:00

shift them to more sustainable methods

27:00

of shipping and more sustainable

27:05

engines and more sustainable vessels.

27:07

Okay. Fascinating. And if you are tracking all this, I can

27:09

imagine that you should be able to start

27:15

producing some very interesting data

27:15

on the global reductions in maritime

27:22

emissions in the coming, you know, well,

27:22

even starting from 2020 if you've been

27:26

tracking it even before that you, you

27:26

said seven years, so that's back to 2016.

27:33

So you should be able to produce some

27:33

fascinating data on the last seven

27:37

years and the next, you know, however

27:37

many years, on, on the, reduction

27:43

in emissions from maritime ships.

27:46

Is it? No, it's not just maritime though,

27:46

either, because you mentioned

27:49

at the start that you are doing

27:49

air freight as well, correct?

27:53

That's correct.

27:55

So both of those, it's,

27:55

it's even harder still, I suspect to get

27:59

emissions down in air freight though.

28:02

You are right. It's, it's harder to get

28:02

emissions down in air freight.

28:06

However, you would be surprised,

28:06

Tom, that ocean shipping contributes

28:12

more towards greenhouse gas emissions

28:12

than air shipping globally combined.

28:17

Is that just because

28:17

of the amount of it that's done.

28:21

That's right. It's due to the amount of it is.

28:24

Okay. Okay.

28:26

That's right, because

28:26

90% of cargo actually moves via

28:29

ocean shipping and only 10% of

28:29

shipments, cargo move via air.

28:34

Okay. Right. That makes sense. Yep. Yep.

28:37

Gautam, we're coming towards

28:37

the end of the podcast now.

28:39

Is there any question I haven't asked that

28:39

you wish I had or any aspect of this we

28:45

haven't touched on that you think it's

28:45

important for people to be aware of?

28:49

So I think one important,

28:49

thing that I want to be sharing is

28:54

that like green carrier evaluation and

28:54

route optimizations is something which

29:00

a lot of companies can work towards. And in fact, according to a recent

29:03

McKinsey study, they estimate that

29:08

50% of the carbon emission goals

29:08

that the companies have can be

29:13

achieved just by switching to better

29:13

routes or better suppliers of cargo

29:19

only if they had this information. So I want to leave with the, this thought

29:21

that if we do better tracking and give

29:26

it in the hands of, the people who are

29:26

actually making the decision, we can

29:30

reduce 50% up to 50% of carbon emissions

29:30

that we, that are currently happening

29:36

and like achieve our goals faster.

29:38

Brilliant, brilliant. Gautam that's been fascinating.

29:41

Thanks a million for coming on the podcast today. If people, by the way, if people would

29:42

like to know more about yourself or

29:46

any of the things we talked about,

29:46

where would you have me direct them?

29:50

Sure. So if they want to reach to me personally,

29:50

they can reach on my LinkedIn account.

29:54

It's Gotham Prem Jain and I, I,

29:54

I come right there at the top.

29:58

If they want to know more about

29:58

our company and want to explore the

30:02

platforms, they are ha they are like,

30:02

welcome to visit our website, which

30:06

is www.gocomet.com, G-O-C-O-M-E-T.com.

30:13

And where did the name Gocomet come from?

30:16

Oh, that's very interesting. Uh, my co-founder Tran, was

30:17

actually reading a book, called

30:22

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. And in that the fastest freight

30:24

train is actually called Comet.

30:29

Ah,

30:30

So we decided to name

30:30

our company Comet, based on that.

30:33

And then, we got the domain.

30:36

We, we thought that if we just

30:36

keep Comet, then we will not

30:38

come on the first in SEO ranking. So we added like Go to it.

30:42

So became GoComet.

30:44

Okay. Okay, great. That's brilliant.

30:47

That's been brilliant Gautam. Thanks a million for coming

30:47

on the podcast today.

30:50

Thank you Tom. It was a pleasure talking to you.

30:53

Okay, thank you all

30:53

for tuning in to this episode

30:56

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