[joecomotion]

IIRC, Rotterdam had a massive govt. subsidy for going fully-automated, which kind of helps.

I spent 10 years between 1997 and 2009 (took a break for grad school) working on semi-automated tracking systems for ports up and down the West Coast (and other places), including one in Oakland. The recent surge in interest in intermodal container ports sure brings back memories!

My company developed niche systems for tracking container location within the terminal by instrumenting and tracking any crane/truck/etc. that could move a container. Even though longshoremen were still operating the equipment, it helped to have a real-time (and historical) picture of what happened, because planning systems were now less subject to clerical mistakes.

Here's their (sort of terrible) website: http://www.nowsol.com/

These guys pretty much own the market for the terminal-planning systems we fed: http://navis.com/