VIRTUAL ARRIVAL
The 25 most powerful shipping companies are controlling approximately 60% of container transport capacity in world trade. Production and servicing of mega container ships are growing. With higher capacities, transportation of containers is increasing, number of stops in the main routes are decreasing. Ports are also trying to adjust their capacities to those changes. The increase in transport capacity will require immediate data on the exact location and status of cargo, as well as on all logistical and institutional aspects of port operations. In light of these requirements, all port and shipping industry sectors will continue to invest in new systems and channels of communication.
Important Shipping Characteristics
CONCEPT OF VIRTUAL ARRIVAL
With the concept of virtual arrivals, ship operators intend to save on bunker costs by lowered sailing speeds. Sailing speeds can be lowered by relaxing the intended arrival time in case it is known a port is already occupied for the forthcoming time period. An example is given in the illustration below. To facilitate virtual arrival, communication between the port and the arriving ships is crucial. In this project the potential fuel savings of virtual arrivals will be analyzed with a set of simulations.
A new promising regulation in the international shipping industry is the Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) regulation. Since 2013 the European Commission has been working on a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by monitoring the performance of the ships regarding GHG emissions. An overview of the MRV regulations is shown in the picture below.
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In the current situation it is very hard to compare ships based on their sustainable performance. In reality conditions change, companies are reluctant to share data and in general very few policies are in place. The concept is that by monitoring and verifying the performance of ships (In the first instance MRV will only include 5000Gt + ships), the European Commission wants to make the shipping market transparent in terms of (sustainable) performance. Specifically, the idea is that stakeholders can compare ships such that they can make their own well-informed decisions. Currently it is very possible that environmental friendly organizations do not use clean ships at all, because very few information is available. The idea is that after MRV is fully introduced in 2019 shipping organizations will be forced to improve their sustainable performance, because it will be a major factor for their customers when they consider the shipping business.
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The ambitions of the European Commission regarding this topic go further than just the MRV program. The next step is to set reductions targets. Bad preforming organizations will be penalized for the extra pollution that they generate. Even after this the European Commission would like to introduce market measures. However, this is still far away and has yet to be thought out.
MRV Regulations
The MRV-strategy of the EU has a big potential for reduction of GHG emissions, but it has been suffering from a lot of resistance of the shipping industry. Clearly there are strong motives for the ship providers to voice against this project. In any case, the more transparent their performance will become, the more competitive they will have to be. Among others, this is one of the reasons such implementations take relatively long.
For a quick summary of the ambitions we refer to the underneath information source (commision, 2017)):
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By 30 August 2017, MRV companies shall submit to an accredited MRV shipping verifier a monitoring plans using a template corresponding to the model in Annex I of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1927 (for more information see also our FAQs document). Electronic templates will also be developed under THETIS MRV (the dedicated European Union information system currently under development by the European Maritime Safety Agency)
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From 1st January 2018, MRV companies shall monitor for each of their ship CO2emisssions, fuel consumption and other parameters, such as distance travelled, time at sea and cargo carried on a per voyage basis, so as to gather annual data into a Emissions report submitted to an accredited MRV shipping verifier;
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From 2019, by 30 April of each year MRV companies shall submit to the Commission through THETIS MRV (a dedicated European Union information system currently under development by the European Maritime Safety Agency) a satisfactorily verified Emissions report for each of the ships having performed EEA related maritime transport in the previous reporting period (calendar year);
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From 2019, by 30 June of each year MRV companies shall ensure that, all their ships having performed activities in the precedent reporting period and visiting EEA ports, carry on board a document of compliance issued by THETIS MRV. This obligation might be subject to inspections by Member States' authorities.
​In addition to the EU also, the IMO(international maritime organization) is actively trying to implement a consumption data collection system. This system would be similar to the EU system, but then globally implemented. This program also focusses on only 5000 gt plus ships and the aim is to start measuring in 2019. However, as of yet this is currently in the conceptual stage.