UAB-online, the SaaS platform for optimising marine operations from pre-arrival to departure for tanker captains and terminal operators, has announced a collaboration with PortXchange Products B.V. The two companies join forces to streamline communications of the arrival process between tanker and terminal.

PortXchange B.V. offers a ship-to-shore planning optimization service that synchronizes operations during a port call. By using PortXchange Synchronizer, terminals can improve berth capacity utilization with reliable and up-to-date information about vessel departure and arrival times. The platform provides a complete picture of the entire port call process enabling terminals to reduce vessel rotation time and increase berth visit efficiency. The collaboration with UAB-online would also allow terminals to effectively coordinate just-in-time arrivals by getting real-time ETA updates from tankers.

Sjoerd de Jager, Managing Director PortXchange: “For many years, the terminal’s approach to scheduling in barges is just a few hours before arrival. Nowadays technology enables them to coordinate this pre-arrival more efficiently. Extending the visibility horizon for barge arrival times up to days instead of hours would allow terminals to optimize their planning even more and save on demurrage for their customer.”

UAB-Online is the market standard application for announcing, handling, and informing inland & seagoing vessels. It has a strong market presence in the ARA region’s liquid bulk market, with almost all barge captains using the platform for sharing documentation. UAB-online is enhancing its current platform with ‘terminal nomination’ functionality to facilitate real-time ETA exchange between tankers and terminals. By allowing barge masters to report ETA’s, UAB-Online helps to shorten the total port stay by minimizing idle times.

Hans Bobeldijk, Managing Director UAB-Online: “In the standard jetty planning process, there’s always someone waiting. Either the terminal is waiting for the vessel or the other way around. The collaboration with PortXchange takes streamlining this process to the next level. This means not only operations but also planning can be efficiently aligned between stakeholders.”