Single electronic environment for all port/maritime transport related information exchanges and management – e-Maritime

FACT SHEET NO.: Cat-No.4 / Subcat-No.4.4-1

4. Internal market

4.4 Internal Market (intramodal): maritime

Single electronic environment for all port/maritime transport related information exchanges and management – e-Maritime

Maritime transport is a major economical contributor in the EU as well as a necessary component for the facilitation of international and interregional trade on which the European economy is strongly dependent. The EU e-Maritime initiative [1], is seen as a cornerstone for the achievement of the strategic goals of the EU Maritime Transport Strategy 2018. EU e-maritime initiative recognizes the critical role of ICT for improving maritime transport administration efficiency. The EU e-maritime initiative anticipates a new era of e-business solutions, based on integrated ICT systems and tools.
e-Maritime related port application areas include [2]:
- integration of Port Community Systems or Port Single Windows with national and international web portals
- managing quality of data collection and automation of statistics reports
- coordination of inspections
- resource management, optimized movements of cargo, containers, passengers, equipment
- integrated port security management

A recent study by EMSA on metadata for ship movements in 40 EU ports and terminals indicates that 26 out of the 40 ports use some kind of PCS or PSW. - Port Community Systems (PCS) supporting exchange of commercial and logistic messages in a port environment, B2B (Business to Business) services; similar applications include Cargo Community System (CCS) [2]
- Port Single Windows (PSW) providing information about the vessel to the authorities on a port level, B2A (Business to Administration); similar applications include Single Point of Contact (SPC) and National Single Window (NSW) [2]

The ultimate goal for the EU e-Maritime initiative is to make maritime transport safer, more secure, more environmentally friendly and more competitive by improving knowledge, facilitating business networking, and dealing with externalities. PCS and PSW aim to improve information exchange, both between port associated companies and between the public and private sector thus providing a one stop shopping system. Improvement of port operations is a key issue according to the fact that ports are the main bottleneck within the maritime transport sector.

The e-Maritime initiative improves the efficiency of maritime transport administration and makes an increasing modal shift to maritime transport and creates a seamless multimodal freight transport environment [1][2].

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The occupation rate of maritime may be increased due to efficient management of maritime transport [4]

Good transport on waterway is much more efficient than other transport modes. A seamless maritime transport environment may improve its transport capacity and increase the utilization of maritime transport [1].

[1] G. Lynch (2010): SKEMA Coordination Action, Maritime and logistics co-ordination platform, “Sustainable Knowledge Platform for the European Maritime and Logistics Industry”
[2] H McLaughlin (2009) : SST–2007–TREN–1 - SST.2007.2.2.4. Maritime and logistics co-ordination platform
SKEMA Coordination Action “Sustainable Knowledge Platform for the European Maritime and Logistics Industry”
[3] http://www.efreightproject.eu/knowledge/defaultinfo.aspx?topicid=159&index=2. February 11, 2013
[4] European commission (2010): Directorate C - Maritime transport C.2 - Maritime transport policy: Ports & Inland waterways “Summary report of the contributions received to the e-Maritime public online consultation”