Action Intel Announces Launch Of  Tow Tracker Application

Action Intel, the data, software and artificial intelligence firm that brought the BargeAI application to the inland waterways, has announced the launch of Tow Tracker. The new tool delivers accurate, real-time positions of towboats to inform commodity trading decisions.

Tow Tracker brings full visibility into barge transportation by collecting data sets like current conditions and predictive estimated time of arrivals (ETAs). With that information, users are able to mitigate supply chain risks and make informed trade decisions based on the expected arrival time of barges.

“Tow Tracker represents a step change for managing barge supply chains,” said Susan Olson, founder of Action Intel. “For too long, stakeholders in grain, energies, fertilizer and other commodities relied on fragmented and delayed updates to make big trade decisions. We listened to the pain points and delivered a unified, real-time solution to manage these critical supply chains.”

Prior to Tow Tracker, even the most sophisticated supply chain managers often relied on once-daily reports of towboat positions.

“Teams had to manually gather and aggregate vessel positions from multiple sources—a process that costs hours,” said Creed Gann, head of operations at Action Intel. “Now, they can access real-time positions across all barge lines on demand. Our clients download that data digitally and immediately see the updates across their workflows.”

Tow Tracker can save dispatchers time and brings clients and service providers into a single workflow.

“Using the same real-time insights helps both barge lines and their commercial partners communicate faster and with less friction,” Olson said.

Like other Action Intel products, Tow Tracker expands visibility beyond internal operations by giving users a broader, real-time view of the entire supply chain. The product offers the data for operational benchmarking, like miles made per day, with data downloads and API service.

Earlier this year, Action Intel installed its first live camera below the I-10 bridge in Baton Rouge, La., a step toward bringing visual verification directly into Tow Tracker.

“Users will now see tow compositions and arrival events in real time, straight from the river,” Gann said.

Action Intel delivers the whole picture of trade and transportation on inland waterways, combining situational awareness, operational benchmarking, lock navigation tools, predictive ETAs, camera-based monitoring and other critical data-driven insights through its BargeAI and Tow Tracker applications.