The Greater Houston Port Bureau (Port Bureau) and PortXchange (PXP) are planning to launch the Houston trial of the PXP port planning software on 8 June 2020.
Specifically, the PXP system is a collaborative vessel and terminal planning platform which offers scheduling transparency to all participants involved in maritime commerce, so as to drop port turnaround time and increase efficiency of port calls.
For the records, more than 20 maritime companies are participating in the trial, such as Shell International Trading and Shipping Company Limited (“Shell”), ExxonMobil, Port of Houston, Contanda, Kinder Morgan Terminals, ITC, Stolt-Nielsen, MOL Chemical Tankers, Odfjell, and the Houston Pilots Association.
What is more, the trial operations will run approximately at least 6 months.
PXP is closely collaborating with the Port Bureau and trial stakeholders in order to develop a roadmap to a sustainable, port-wide digital environment.
Consolidating port planning data into one central platform gives terminals, ships, and third-party service providers better predictability. The port of Houston is by far the busiest port in the U.S. Now, we want to be the most efficient.
….CAPT Bill Diehl, president of the Port Bureau noted.
Furthermore, PXP shares schedule information, allowing agents, shipping lines, terminals, and service providers to optimize planning and deconflict potential issues.
Once a vessel has an estimated time of arrival, a Port Call is created and relevant parties can see associated plans for that vessel. The schedule information is merged with AIS and vessel tracking data, machine learning predictions, and operational data to give a real-time status of each port call.
Change management is always a challenge and this is a big step forward. It’s the partnerships that have gotten us this far, and I’m confident we will be able to provide tangible results and grow alongside the Houston community.
…Sjoerd de Jager, PXP managing director, concluded.
