Port of Amsterdam – PACT project

Insufficient use of port infrastructure leads to unnecessary delays and subsequently economical losses for all the stakeholders involved in the shipping logistics. The Port of Amsterdam together with the port community engaged in an innovative process to identify the root causes of this problem. Low accuracy of Estimated Departure Times (ETD) for vessels was recognized as the main cause of slack in the port infrastructure planning, and resulting inefficiencies.

We found the best identifiers that could help sharpen the estimations of departure times at the terminals, thus increasing the planning accuracy. The next step was to build a tool that could help communicate the more accurate data points within different port stakeholders for better decision making and management of port infrastructure. This tool is called PACT.

PACT is a tool that allows terminals, agencies, and the port community to share data about departure times and the status of departing tankers automatically and earlier in the ordering process. This means that:

  1. agents can place orders more accurately and order less over-or too early;
  2. control rooms of terminals are relieved as they deal with fewer means of communication;
  3. harbor master and nautical service providers can better plan & utilize resources

PACT objectives included:

  • Reducing unnecessary claims of port resources
  • Reducing delays
  • Increasing communication efficiency among port stakeholders

The achievements to date can be summarized as:

  • Uniting the port community to collaborate to share data to solve a mutual problems
  • Reducing delays during the experiments by 80%
  • Reducing time spent in port: 80% of ship emissions in Amsterdam occur when docked, so less time spent in port means fewer emissions
  • Strong start to building a digital infrastructure and community in the port area