Truck prediction tool at Valencia

Developed with Nextport, the AI system uses information such as ship size and route, weather, global festivals and economic information to predict the number of trucks that will pass through the docks, which terminal they will use and whether they will load or unload.

This latest step is part of the Port Authority of Valencia’s (APV) digitalisation strategy which aims to create a machine learning model of port data.

“This has been a project promoted by Valenciaport following a long trajectory of digitisation of port activity that we began in the 1990s,” explained Alexandre Sánchez, director of PCS Information Systems for the APV.

“Three decades ago, the urgent thing was to digitise documents and processes, now we have the opportunity to do much more for our port community thanks to predictive data management,” he added.

Competitive advantage

The predictive AI-assisted model gives terminals and carriers a competitive edge as it enables them to improve planning and better manage workloads.

Terminals have the traffic flow data days in advance and are able to hire more or fewer staff as necessary. Shippers, meanwhile, know the schedules and cargo volumes in advance, allowing them to better mange their schedules and waiting times.

The data can also be shared with local administrations, helping to improve traffic management on roads near the ports.