Another way to efficiency

“Shippers need to feel secure about operations and about their goods. They need a lot of encouragement to consider the ports and sea transport option. We will look at promotion and also make practical suggestions for making better use of the interoperability between ports,” he explains.

In essence, the project focuses on speedy, cost-effective freight flows that contribute to regional competitiveness while reducing environmental impact.

Specifically, there will be two key strands to the project, says Mr Stange.

“In the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) strand, we want to promote sea transport by improving the interaction of the different EDI systems in the ports; this will make transport much faster and much more efficient.” “We are not talking about a Europe-wide port community system, but looking at ways to improve interaction so the systems can better talk to each other.”

The other strand, which looks at hinterland transport, will aim to improve the land-side interaction.

Following on from the highly successful Port-Net initiative, Mr Stange says the Port Integration vision is ‘quite clear’: “We are trying to tackle important key issues to improve communication between ports, to make things more practical for shippers and users.”