Port of Moerdijk: ‘All the data at our fingertips’

“Basically, we no longer need to worry about visiting maritime traffic,” says Jessica Roks, assistant harbourmaster of the Port of Moerdijk Authority, explaining the added value of ShipLogic.
Together with application manager Marjolijn Hogeland, she is delighted with the impact of the ShipLogic port management system on the day-to-day handling of shipping in The Netherlands’ most inland seaport – which also handles substantial volumes of barge traffic.

Insight at all times
Jessica Roks: “ShipLogic makes the registration of seagoing vessels extremely straightforward. By linking ShipLogic with the national Port Community System, Portbase, we always know which ships to expect and how many people are on board. We can also see which ten ports a ship visited prior to Moerdijk, which is important in view of ISPS regulations. Via the interactive, real-time map, we always know the exact mooring location of each ship in our port.”

Major time savings
“Moerdijk is located four hours inland from Rotterdam by vessel. This is where the entire admissions policy for maritime shipping is regulated and where seaport dues are settled. Rotterdam sends us an overview of this once a month. ShipLogic reads this at the click of a mouse. All ship voyages and associated amounts are automatically linked to each other. We are done in two to three minutes, whereas in the past this would take us at least two-and a-half to three hours. ShipLogic also automatically reads the reports of tonnages handled by each seagoing vessel.
Previously, we had to input this manually, retyping based on emails sent by the shipping agent and the like.”

Complete handling of inland shipping
“In addition to the registration of maritime shipping, we use ShipLogic to completely handle our inland shipping traffic.
The digital map gives us full insight. For example, we can immediately tell whether an inland vessel that has arrived overnight still needs to register. All necessary ship data is available in ShipLogic. This often used to be quite a laborious task, including in terms of the correct invoicing of inland port dues.”

Intuitive operation
Marjolijn Hogeland: “These invoices are drawn up in
ShipLogic. With a click of the mouse, they are next sent to our financial system; from here, the actual invoicing takes place. This is just one example of the connections that are possible from ShipLogic. Partly due to the interactive map, ShipLogic is very intuitive to operate. Another clever feature is the migration of the entire history into ShipLogic, which means we never need to consult the old system. From the moment we went live with ShipLogic, everything has been running very smoothly. And should there be an issue, then they are immediately ready to assist us.”

Seeing is believing
Jessica Roks: “Using the system was a real eye-opener for me. To be honest, I was initially somewhat sceptical about the graphical map, but ShipLogic provides a lot of convenience and insight. It puts all the data at your fingertips.”

Port of Moerdijk

The Port of Moerdijk is the fourth largest and most inland Dutch seaport and the second largest container port in The Netherlands. This makes Moerdijk a vital European hub for shortsea, inland shipping, rail, road and transport via pipeline.

Every year, the port welcomes around 2,000 seagoing vessels, with a maximum length of 201 metres and maximum draught of 8.5 metres, together with 10,000-12,000 inland vessel calls. The Moerdijk Port Authority connects, manages and develops the port.