Three leading ECDIS-suppliers, Transas, Wärtsilä SAM Electronics and Adveto, will provide the first Sea Traffic Management-compatible on-board systems. Supplied services during the test include route optimisation, monitoring, port call synchronisation, ship to ship route exchange and many more. Fuel can be saved, port call efficiency increased and accident risk reduced.
“In Transas we strive to create and enable the connection of the dots in ship operations. Sea Traffic Management is in line with our vision as we want to show the industry how they can use technology to become more efficient” comments Frank Coles, Transas CEO
The Norwegian Minister of Transport Ketil Solvik-Olsen logged in and officially inaugurated the Port of Stavanger test bed. All actors involved in port calls share time stamps for planned and actual actions, thus helping each other to the most efficient operations possible during the call. It is collaborative decision making at its best and named PortCDM. Here together with Merete Eik, CEO of Port of Stavanger in front the Britannia, the first ship in test bed and also the venue of the launch event. Thank you, P&O Cruises for welcoming us on board! (Photo: Stein Roger Fossmo)
The three STM presentations were well received at the IALA-VTS Symposium. One reflection is that, things we said a couples of years ago, that were deemed controversial then, are now widely accepted. The questions we receive are rather along the line “When can we have this?”. A trend is also an accepting attitude towards traffic management where the shore side has an active role. The last reflection is that the concept of STM is not alone anymore. Initiatives across the world are trying to make VTS integrate better with the ships. Coordination is needed in order to have a global information sharing standard.
Maritime EU-coordinator Brian Simpson enjoyed working part-time in the STM stand during TEN-T Days. And Sea Traffic Management was also a pillar in the strategic plan he presented during the event.
More ports can now connect to the Sea Traffic Management (STM) community by using a small selection of the standard messages, to share and receive estimated time of arrival (ETA) and actual time of departure (ATD) with other ports.
Reading out waypoints of an ice-route over VHF can easily be a source of misunderstanding. Sea Traffic Management aims to increase safety, and winter navigation is one important area for this. This spring the very first ice-route was sent directly from the Swedish icebreaker Frej to the Ro-Ro ship Transpaper using the on-board electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS). This illustrates how STM can lead the way for future winter navigation.
