Untangling the regulations

Developed as part of an EU funded research project, the Flagship-RCS (Regulatory Compliance Support) system is able to tell a ship what restrictions are in place in a specific port. The system can also acquire information about the ship so that it is aware of which regulations apply.

Luke Speller of BMT told Port Strategy that much of the information for the port, like the Cargo Manifests, Pre-Arrival Security Information and the Dangerous Goods Manifest are subject to ever-increasing regulation, “which can tie both ships and ports up in red tape”.

He added: “This system gives incoming ships relevant updates, such as Notice to Mariners, as well as other notifications like berthing allocation, all of which will smooth the docking processes”.

Of special interest to resource-strapped ports is the automatic flagging up of contradictory regulations – whether these rules originate with the ports or the national or international governmental organisations. The clever part, according to Mr Speller is that it does this by semantic searching. “By using this kind of system, if two regulations refer to the same situation but require opposing actions, the port gets told there is a contradiction – and it can then take action to resolve the problem.“

Further, some forms like the manifests are ‘intelligent’ in that the shipboard system will remember what’s been carried before, and progressively tailor the suggested input from the crew.

All of this, explained Mr Speller, helps the ships comply with regulations, and though there will still be infractions, “this system would lead to fewer breaches caused as a result of ships simply being unaware of the restrictions in place”.