Linking up the data silos

The digitalisation sector, goes hand in hand with this objective; perhaps coincidently, but probably not – there has been an absolute explosion of data providers hoping to offer the shipping business (vessel owners, cargo interests, and everyone in between) products/ apps/ platforms (take your pick!) to help “optimise”.

As I listened to a sudden burst of webinars just prior to the full -blown summer season, it occurs to me that something is missing from these vast “data lakes” (buzzwords loom large in the world of the shipping optimisers) meant to fine-tune vessel voyages. The missing element is data from the ports.

Some of the larger ports have trumpeted their databases, available to online viewers, of things like vessel arrivals, number of vessels waiting, and the like. Yet these are all discrete systems; they don’t hook up to optimisation systems aimed at the shipping companies (who could reduce their carbon emissions if the ships did not “hurry up and wait” because berths are not ready.) There are no real common standards for such systems, so a few of the ports have developed APIs (application programming interfaces, yes) which can make data available to developers of voyage optimizer apps. Indeed, the data can also be viewed, and input into programming efforts on the cargo side, as well. 

The exact nuts and bolts of how to write the code for a port’s data availability are beyond my low-tech grasp. However, I’ve found that the beauty of APIs is that the industry need not adhere to a precise set of data architecture, but they do need to make certain bits of logistical data (I am thinking berth availability and scheduling) available via the interfaces that will then feed disparate systems. For the management of the ports, it’s important for them to make their carrier and terminal customers, along with their in-house number crunchers and data boffins, clearly aware of the broader purpose of opening up this type of data to other applications.

A welcome development would be for organisers of conferences directed at the port sector, to check out what the optimisers are saying when they are speaking at conferences (or, these days, webinars) directed at ship operators. The port side and the vessel side (including vendors of products that pull together data from multiple sources) ought to be talking to each other.