ShipCrunch

Shippers will get all the data on carriers. Then what?

Soon ships' emissions data will be open to everybody. What will they, what can they do with it?

By Ryan Skinner (email)

OOCL is the latest in a string of big container lines to offer a carbon calculator, which is meant to give customers a means of calculating a shipment's emissions and comparing them with other transport options and providers. It's the latest result of two colliding trends: Increased harvesting and manipulation of data, and increased end-user interest in bottom-line environmental impact.

Like many, I'm a bit jaundiced regarding environmental claims, so I followed the strings of OOCL's press release back to those behind the carbon calculator. I wanted to know what this calculator could do, what it couldn't, how OOCL would use it, how shippers would use it and what it all meant?

The carbon calculator is the product of the Clean Cargo Working Group (CCWG), which was set up by an outfit called BSR seven or eight years ago. CCWG was set up to give shippers and carriers a place where shippers could drive improvements collectively and carriers could build common standards. I talked to Raj Supra and Marshall Chase who work on the CCWG for BSR.

Supra confirmed that CCWG surveys its members (which include over 60% of the global market for container carriers) for a quantitative set of metrics, including carbon-dioxide and sulphur- and nitrogen-oxides. Specific emission factors per ship per voyage are built based on formulas that stem from the IMO, but include a mish-mash of specifics updated as IT capabilities increase.

The idea of businesses driving other businesses to improve based on quantitative performance is comforting. But why should we trust industry to police itself? There's a Switzerland-sized oil slick in the Gulf arguing against industry's self-regulation.

The CCWG is on this issue in three ways: 1) This May, the group resolved to make its emission factors public (and the formulas that create them). 2) They are piloting a verification system that provides some layer of auditing of the figures. 3) Work has begun aligning their work with work in the US EPA and the World Economic Forum's logistics group.

Is the data having any effect, I asked? Are people choosing away suppliers for filling the troposphere with carbon-dioxide? Only anecdotally. "Some shippers are plugging the data in supply chain scorecards, rating and ranking suppliers. If it's not already grounds for choosing suppliers, it will be soon."

Basically, BSR and CCWG are trying to help shippers and carriers find their way through the data maze; in this instance, the lofty goal is emissions. The challenge is on industry to use the data wisely, and drive improvement so quickly that regulators don't force the issue. Will they succeed? The jury's still out.

Me, you and Mitropoulos

It's about time the IMO developed a voice that people could hear and understand, no?

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Last year at Nor-Shipping, I watched and listened as a former CNN anchor, Todd Benjamin, politely but decisively made it clear that he thought IMO boss Efthimios Mitropoulos was simply irrelevant in the debate around climate and the environment. The sub-text to everyone in the audience: "You're cute, but there's really no point listening to you, is there?"

Was it a gratuitous challenge to authority? Big CNN-style sensationalism on a stage too small for it? And what does that Benjamin guy know about shipping anyway? Setting aside the whole question of how the IMO has addressed or not addressed shipping's impact on climate change, I am compelled to ask: Why are the IMO and Mitropoulos so soft-spoken?

It would seem the IMO recognizes the problem, and is keen to do something about it. A very good source tipped me off to this job announcement. He suggested that I had touched a nerve. (Truly, one has to blush; could a blogger like me ask for a better endorsement of the subversive power of his influence?) I don't believe it, but the IMO is clearly responding to a felt need to address its voiceless-ness online.

It's time Efthimios Mitropoulos started a blog. It's time IMO started to twitter. Heck, a quasi-public outfit like Sailors' Society does it. The Baltic Exchange. IMarEST. Even the EU. It's time the IMO renewed its web-site; I defy you to find a more impenetrable digital thicket than www.imo.org. It's the Obamamania government 2.0 era. Get with it.

Look at the US Coast Guard as an example with a similar role in the same industry. Outgoing USCG Commandant Thad Allen styled himself the iCommandant, pressing social media channels, blogging, twitter and the rest to his bemedalled breast. Thanks to Allen, the USCG's got a huge following, a human voice that casts far and web-empowered agencies like AMVER.

So I make this an appeal to the IMO called "Me, You and Mitropoulos". I single out the boss because he's got to take responsibility for the whole show, and its successes/failings. It's time for the IMO and Mitropoulos to enter conversations. It's time to gain a voice. If you're reading this and you have a voice on twitter, in a blog or elsewhere, use it. Ask the IMO to start conversing. Tell 'em to blog, to tweet, to speak up online.

Come on, IMO. Emerge from the technocratic fog and enter the social cloud.

The future is ECDIS-licious!

There are billions of reasons to pay attention to the market around ECDIS in coming years

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Last year, the IMO - spurred on by studies from the likes of DNV - set down a mandate; basically, every merchant vessel over 3,000 gross tons will need to use an ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display and Information System) for primary navigation, and very soon. That was like the start pistol for a dash.

The short-term prize of this race is the 45,000-odd ships that need to get fitted with an ECDIS between 2012 and 2018; today, these components go for ca. USD 10-50,000 a pop, before distributor mark-up and service contracts. That's a market of between half a billion and 2.5 billion dollars, practically overnight.

So it's no wonder every shop with a finger in navigation is boosting its sales and marketing functions. And many shipowners are keen buyers; even those who don't need to have an ECDIS fitted for several years are fitting ships with them anyway, as they're eager to quit themselves of the burden of maintaining paper charts (one of the carrots of ECDIS adoption).

In their fervor, shipowners and operators are desperate for answers to pressing questions. Will there be the necessary global coverage of the ENC charts needed to run an ECDIS? What constitutes an appropriate back-up, if the ECDIS fails? How do you minimize the cost of chart licenses and chart updates?

Suppliers are rushing to provide answers. I have worked with one client, a provider of ENCs, to develop a community resource around ECDIS and e-Navigation (the term used by IMO to describe how ECDIS and other technologies will interact on the bridge, and with officers). Seminars, conferences and workshops are springing up like dandelions in May. And publications like Hydro International and Safety at Sea are tripping over themselves to nail coverage.

AIS is not Foursquare for shipping

They're both about localisation, but that doesn't make them apples and apples

By Ryan Skinner (email)

You probably already know AIS. The short-range coastal tracking system identifies vessels near coastlines all over the world's oceans, with information about the vessel's name, speed, destination, heading, etc.

You probably don't know Foursquare. It's one of those facebook-like social networks, except this one makes a big deal of location. It's all about where you're at, where you're going, where your friends/girlfriend/mother are, etc. These social location services are one of the four big tech trends of 2010, along with mobile web, iPad and toilet-training cats.

There are many ways that AIS and Foursquare are alike:

• Marketers are gonzo for the data, so they can target buyers (in shipping's case, agents target ships calling in ports)
• They're all about location; without it, they're pretty much pointless (so many examples of AIS position faults)
• With both, you know who's around you, so you can arrange serendipitous meetings (Foursquare), or avoid them (shipping)
• Both can give away too much information (to house burglars, or pirates)
• Both provide a basic platform that service providers are rushing to build valuable products and services on top of
• People are known to fudge both of them to hide their true location
• Both enable overzealous stalkers; in shipping's case, this would be a charterer wondering why the ship is idling outside port

But they've got at least a few salient differences that prevent too close a comparison:

• Foursquare users opt in. AIS is required by the IMO, at least for most classes of ships
• If you go somewhere in Foursquare, you get a badge. If you go somewhere in shipping, you get money
• Foursquare requires you to check-in at its web-site, or through compatible web services. AIS signals are sent automatically
• Foursquare only gives you access to your friends' location; any inquisitive person can check out AIS-powered ship positions online
• Foursquare makes location a game; AIS has, as yet, few fun-loving sides

At its root, Foursquare only works if those people whose position it reports, like it. AIS, on the other hand, is just there. You ignore it at your peril. Nonetheless, anyone developing AIS-related services would be wise to look carefully at developments on Foursquare. You always want to be working towards the market's wants and needs.

So here's a list of articles about business uses for Foursquare. AIS business developers, dig in:

The NY Times bits blog describes how businesses are using Foursquare statistics.

PBS interviews Foursquare's chief business development officer, on use of the platform.

Location Meme ran an article about how a restaurant guide (shippers, imagine an agent) uses Foursquare.

Inc.com gives a guide to success on the Foursquare platform.

And lest I forget my friends in marine media, here's an article about how the big media brands are using Foursquare, to inspire your creative use of AIS.

Some may want to laugh this off, but the Foursquare/AIS analogies are not so far-fetched. For better or worse, fewer and fewer of us are lost under the great blue sky and it's time to find the costs and benefits of this findability, and manage them.

Lloyd's intelligence empire rules all, but why so closed?

Lloyd's says they have the best data in shipping. Believe it. But why don't they open up?

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Lloyd's List Intelligence's Arne Hanssen has a good argument: Sure, many web-sites today provide AIS-based information about ship movements, but this does not a real service make.

"They overstate, I think. They give you the impression that you can follow ships all over the world, but access to AIS data doesn't give you that, at least not very reliably," said Hanssen.

Lloyd's List Intelligence has an impressive array of land-based AIS receivers and even satellite-based AIS to give some deepwater position reports. On top of that, they have a global network of agents and other contacts, who beef up the quality and volume of vessel movement data.

"Our aim is to create a full movement history of every commercial ship, but we're not there yet. I'd say around 90 per cent of ship movements are today recorded," said Hanssen.

Who uses the data? He wouldn't specify any leading users, but said shipping companies monitoring own and competitors' fleets, commodity traders and law firms would all find the data useful.

Interestingly, Lloyd's draws the line at studies of specific trades (say, the container trade from the Med to the US East coast); it looks only at companies and ships. Presumably, trade reports would encroach on the business models of Lloyd's customers.

That's where I get frustrated. This firehose of live shipping data could be the foundation for a thousand valuable services and models that would power change in the industry. It would just be a matter of sharing, or licensing, access to that data stream.

I asked Hanssen if Lloyd's made its data available to third-parties (on a free or paying basis) so that they could create value-added services on top of it. The answer was basically no. "It is integrated into a very few specialized products, but we're very strict about access to the data," said Hanssen.

This is the era of the API. Big companies sitting on lots of data, or a platform, or both (stand up, twitter Amazon and Apple) not only let third-party companies interface with their data and platforms, they positively encourage it.

So why doesn't Lloyd's publicize an API for its database of dynamically updated shipping information? Lack of interest in the market? Lack of a model to profit by it? Have they simply not thought of it?

Whatever the answer, their competitors in the ship movement data business are probably already eagerly pursuing partners who want to build bigger products off of their basic service. That's the spirit of shipping 2.0.

In Gothenburg, a shore power prophetess

The notion of connecting ships to the land grid in port is gaining ground, and the Port of Gothenburg's helping

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Port of Gothenburg Environmental Manager Åsa Wilske and I are on the way to the port's gate five, where a Wagenborg-managed Cobelfret ship called Spaarneborg is just about to connect to a 6-kV power cable from shore, which will power the ship during its shore operations.

"The Port of Shanghai was here just last week," says Wilske. "They gave the impression that they were going to invest in shore power connections in a big way." She plays host to groups from ports from all corners of the world. They come to see how the Port of Gothenburg connects 20 per cent of port calls to the land grid.

Wilske didn't get this ball rolling; she inherited an initiative started by Stora Enso (a Scandinavian paper giant), which sought to introduce environmental efficiencies throughout its logistics chain. They hit on the idea of a high-voltage shore connection while chartered ships called in Gothenburg.

In fact, the technology is ten years old, at least. The world's navies have been doing low-voltage connections even longer than that. It hasn't caught on in a bigger way previously for the reasons you might expect: expense, time, trouble, cheap bunkers, etc.

Says Wilske: "When we presented high-voltage shore power connection ten years ago, it was totally unrealistic for most of my colleagues at other ports. There was widespread skepticism then. Now it's a hot topic and when I presented it at the World Ports Conference in 2008, the tune had changed."

Quayside, a trainee engineer slowly lowers the ca. 5-6 cm wide cable from Spaarneborg to another engineer, who expertly grabs the massive plug with a gaff. In a matter of minutes, the plug is connected. No special equipment is used. A big industrial socket is opened, the plug is thrust in, a lever is dropped and a switch is turned. Now all that remains is a quick shipboard synchronisation.

The value of such connections for shipowners is both financial and environmental. A new subsidy from Sweden's government (it awaits only EU approval) will effectively strip this shore-based power of all tax, making it even more cost-effective.

For the port, it's primarily about the environment. A study undertaken by the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, for example, found that as much as one-third of ships' NOX emissions were created while in port. In their case, this amounted to 13 tonnes of NOX per day - equivalent to 13 million cars' emissions, per day.

Onboard, we're about to find out another benefit. With the flip of a switch, the ship's chief engineer synchronizes the ship-side and shore-side electrical load, and moments later the auxiliary engines shut down. It is not dead silent onboard, but noticeably quieter, something people onboard and on shore like.

"We started with those ships where we'd see the most benefit - the ferries and RO-RO ships that call here very often. That's why we can say that 20 per cent of port calls are shore-powered, when only 10 ships are currently hooking up," says Wilske. "But we'd like to see more of this, on container ships, and car carriers."

Together with the ports of Antwerp, Amsterdam and Hamburg, Wilska and the Port of Gothenburg are spreading the good news via a new site at www.onshorepowersupply.org. These efforts, combined with a global standard for high-voltage shore connections and a scenario of rising bunker and emissions prices, are bound to bring the technology to a port near you, sooner rather than later.

INVESTIGATION: Ship monitoring and transit corridors

An ongoing study of the rise of ship monitoring and how owners and nations are steering its development

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Recent news that the EU would most likely take over the US role of hosting an international exchange of LRIT (Long-Range Identification and Tracking Systems) data from SOLAS ships is only the latest development in a long trend of increasing ship monitoring.

From prior experience writing about AIS, I know monitoring raises concerns in seafarers. Regulators and owners, on the other hand, are generally positive. In many highly trafficked areas, governments use monitoring to set up and control the flow of ships.

This article kicks off a study into how different companies and nations are using monitoring, to make shipping operations safer, more profitable, more predictable and less likely to cause pollution. How is data being collected, transmitted, shared, purchased and manipulated?

What are the arguments for and against monitoring technology? Which companies are making innovative monitoring-related products and services? And which nations are setting up transit corridors, where are they doing it and where are they thinking about doing it?

Along with my own reports and entries published here, I will also start a series of discussions that aim to address different aspects of this story:

• At the gcaptain forum, I have started a discussion into how seafarers see ship monitoring, and what they would like to see in future, in terms of technology, regulations or company policy
• At the Maritime Executive discussion group in LinkedIn, I have started a discussion into how technology and shipping companies are making use of new technologies and possibilities with greater monitoring, and
• At the Hydrography discussion group in LinkedIn, I am starting a discussion about how governments are using monitoring and establishing transit corridors to control shipping and its impact.

In order to provide a way for those who are interested to follow all of these discussions simultaneously, I set up a simple daughter blog called "Monitor" that gathers all input into a single presentation.

ShipServ's new web advertising network

 There's a new game in town for shipping's advertisers. It's ShipServ's shipping-focused ad network.

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Ad networks are common to many industries, but the shipping industry has yet to see much use of them. Basically, these facilitate the advertising transaction between web publishers (who own sites) and advertisers. Usually the advertiser describes what it's after and the ad network tries to facilitate that need, by buying space and automating the advertising process, then returning statistics on performance.

Mark Warner, who led up digital efforts at Lloyd's List for many years, has now launched a unique start-up under ShipServ's management to create an ad network for shipping sites and shipping advertisers. I asked Mark for an interview, and here's most of that chat. (It lasts about 7 minutes).

ShipServ