A container having a battery and one or more active systems for maintaining temperature or other characteristics of goods stored within the container relies on a battery to maintain those active systems during transit. The size of the battery required for such applications may be reduced by providing access to external power during a shipment cycle. For example, shelves within transit vehicles or warehouses can supply electricity to the active systems via a wireless or wired connection, or they may recharge the container's battery, or both. The container may also have data bridging capabilities that use short range wireless technology to communicate with nearby devices that have access to other data streams, such as GPS data and internet connectivity. When bridged with a provider, the container may have access to new data streams, or may be able to disable internal devices providing those same data streams to conserve power.