Inchcape Shipping Services is adding a new Port Cost Estimator (PCE) to its World of Ports 2.0 platform that will make both voyage cost calculations and TCE estimates much easier and more accurate.
The new module is for anyone who is involved in voyage planning. It has been created by the Head of Systems at Inchcape, Captain Aravind Prasath, and his team. Tech whizz Prasath was a vessel master for 10 years before joining Inchcape so is very familiar with the “unknown variables” that can knock port-cost calculations out of whack.
The port costs challenge
Where you load and discharge makes up a big chunk of the total cost of a voyage. A major challenge is to estimate the cost both ways. To go ahead with a charter, you need insight into every required financial transaction to avoid making a loss. PCE provides cost estimates based on port operations ranging from loading and discharging to bunkering and canal transits, and across different vessel types and sizes.
Marshalling the variables
Many variables can influence the cost of a port call, including the port itself, the terminal, type and size of vessel, type and quantity of cargo, whether it is loading or discharging, and a wide range of optional and mandatory in-port services. By selecting your vessel and load/discharge port, PCE can give you an average baseline cost (the bare minimum) in three clicks. It automatically fills in vessel details from its database. But the more fields you populate (specific terminal and type of cargo and quantity), the closer the estimate will be.
Exceptional granularity
To get a realistic prediction PCE matches users’ requests based on actual calls and PDAs (proforma disbursement accounts). It digs down among more than 3.5 million datapoints in Inchcape’s proprietary historical port dataset stemming directly from Inchcape’s global network. Not only has Inchcape administered millions of port calls over the years, they track calls being made by 50,000 vessels each and every day. This means the dataset is dynamic and being added to all the time.
For more information:
E-mail: sales@worldofports.com
Web: WWW.WORLDOFPORTS.COM