PORT OF HAMBURG magazine - Hafen Hamburg

www.vesseltracker.com
A shipping company employee who
needs to quickly establish the position
of ship belonging to the company; a
harbour pilot wanting to find out how
far out to sea a vessel he needs to
steer safely through his territory still is;
a service provider interested in the
position of a ship even outside working
hours – vesseltracker.com provides a
practical solution for all of them.
The Hamburg-based software
architects, who set up shop not
far from the Aussenalster in
the city’s east, are offering a highperformance
tool that impresses not
least because it is just as suitable for
the day-to-day operation of a shipping
company as it is for ship-spotting
enthusiasts. Accordingly, the
different versions of the complex,
yet easy-to-use software are tailored
to suit individual needs. What was
important to the programmers working
with company chief Ralf
Paahsen was that the application
should be web-based, so that users
would not need to install extensive
software systems in order to use the
service. “Stand-alone services are
simply no longer up with the times,“
said Paahsen. “Today it is expected
that users can call up data from any
computer anywhere in the world.”
Since all ships operating today are
equipped with an automatic identification
system – AIS for short – their
journeys can be tracked in real time.
All vessels fitted with AIS transmit
a range of data (call sign, name,
length, width and type of vessel) via
radio link. This data can be received
by AIS receivers and evaluated.
At present, vesseltracker.com operates
mainly in the North-European region,
covering the main ports, such as
Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam,
Antwerp, Tilbury and Le Havre, as
well as many other ports and regions.
Already vesseltracker operates
just under 50 receiver stations, each
with a range of 30 to 50 miles.
The medium term goal is to achieve
virtually complete coverage of all
major ports throughout Europe.
KARTENERLÄUTERUNG
In der Kartenansicht werden die Schiffe mit Fahrtrichtung und ihrem aktuellen Zustand
sowie knappen, übersichtlichen Daten ausgewiesen. „Echtzeit“ heißt, dass die Daten
zwei Minuten nach Sendung vom Schiff auf dem Bildschirm zu sehen sind.
Vesseltracker hat dazu über 30 Antennenstationen an die Küste von Riga bis Piraeus
gestellt. Die Präzision der Daten kann am besten an den Liegeplätzen im Hafen überprüft
werden. Neben der Live-Beobachtung spielt auch die Vergangenheit bei “vesseltracker.com”
eine Rolle. „Die Stammdaten aller Schiffe, die schon einmal in unserem
Empfangsbereich waren, können in unserem Schiffsarchiv mit Schiffsfotos abgerufen
werden”, sagt Paahsen. Damit weist er gleich auf eine mehr als nur dekorative Weiterung
des Angebotes. Denn der Informationsbereich wird mit einer Foto-Community abgerundet.
Mehrere zehntausend Schiffsbilder haben die Nutzer bereits hochgeladen.
Das kostenlose vesseltracker.com-Angebot nutzen bereits über 10.000 User.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MAP
In the map view, individual ships are indicated with their direction of travel and their
current status, with brief and concise data included. ‘Real time’ means the data is displayed
on screen within two minutes after being transmitted by a vessel. To achieve this, vesseltracker
has set up more than 30 receiver stations along the coast from Riga to Piraeus.
The precision of the data is best checked with ships docked at a berth in a harbour.
In addition to live observation, history also plays a role at vesseltracker.com: “The base
data of any ship that entered our area of reception at some point in the past can be
called up from the ships’ archive, together with photographs of the ship,” said Paahsen.
In doing so, he is alluding to something that is more than simply a decorative addition to the
service: the information provision is complemented with a photo community. Several tens
of thousands of photographs of ships have already been uploaded by users. More than
10,000 users are already making use of the free vesseltracker.com service.
In the longer term it is envisaged
to expand the vesseltracker network
throughout the world, partly
by cooperating with other AIS
providers, for example in China
and in the U.S.
Customers today include quay
operators, shipping companies,
brokers, shipyards, tugboat operators,
mooring service operators,
surveyors, forwarders
and many other service
providers in shipping,
transport and logistics,
as well as representatives
and agencies of local
authorities. The latter group
of users include port
authorities, water police,
pilots and rescue service
centres in particular.
PORT OF HAMBURG MAGAZINE 2/08
39