Short sea shipping, as defined by the European Commission,refers to the movement of cargo by sea betweenports situated in geographical Europe or between those ports and ports situated in non-European countries having a coastline on the enclosed seas bordering Europe.
Through an Open Planning and Booking System, with dynamic re-planning of transportation based on real-time transport execution data, IntelliTrans provides the tracking of booked shipments via integration with involved Logistics Service Providers (LSPs). IntelliTrans’s system also allows for the recording and reporting of associated carbon emissions, aiding customers in their emissions compliance. By facilitating booking & tracking across all modes and LSPs, IntelliTrans reduces traditional barriers to utilization of lower cost and lower carbon footprint modes.
The IntelliTrans booking system hinges on user empowerment, real-time execution data, situational awareness of shipments, data integration, timely information exchange, and component cost transparency. Using the system, a Logistics Service Customer (LSC) is able to search for available routes and associated LSPs to select and book transportation services for their shipments. By utilizing emissions calculations facilities, an LSC may evaluate comparative information relating to the potential emissions savings of selecting a particular route or LSP over another. The booking system combines the transport service descriptions of LSPs from a variety of sources. In this way, an LSC may choose from many potential options when displaying the available routes and LSPs which could be used to transport their shipments.
Capabilities of IntelliTrans include communicating delays in rail transit and in sea voyages, allowing last mile distribution bookings to be arranged or amended as necessary. For example, in the current operation, an IntelliTrans rail tracking functionality allows for the anticipation of a particular container’s late arrival at the Port of Gothenburg. (If arriving late, the container will not be available for loading onto its booked vessel.) In that case, the IntelliTrans system will automatically generate an alert and then attempt to re-book the container onto a later voyage, freeing up vessel capacity.
In conjunction with the European Union funded iCargo project, IntelliTrans currently implements short sea shipping integration for our European customers. iCargo provides a distributed, cloud-based environment where connected partners can share information through iCargo’s “Access Points.” Using Access Points, business and transport service providers publish their own availability and connect with other partners. In the ongoing European arrangement, IntelliTrans facilitates tracking a route by rail from Borlange, Sweden to Port Gothenburg, by sea from Gothenburg to Zeebrugge, and finally by rail/road to end customers in continental Europe.
In addition to the utilities mentioned above, the Open Planning and Booking System offers a post-shipment report of associated carbon costs and savings. The report breaks down the details based on the individual shipment legs together with total figures and savings by using multimodal transportation versus moving the shipment by road only – especially relevant to short sea shipping operations. An “End-to-End Savings” section reveals savings based on a shipment moving using a direct route between the origin and destination points, rather than moving via intermediate locations.
.avif)
