Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and Portbase have signed a data sharing agreement. By doing so, both parties make it possible to provide an acceleration in the logistics chain of fruit transportation. The wider sharing of data is good news for branch association Frugi Venta and its fruit importers who transport goods into the Dutch ports via MSC.
Sharing data is not an unknown phenomenon in the port sector. Portbase facilitates this data sharing via a port-wide, online, Port Community System (PSC). However, this agreement ensures that data can be shared outside of PSC, using a different platform. Frugi Venta, Portbase and the Neutral Logistics Information Platform (NLIP) tested the cooperation via a pilot in 2016. The VRC, (Association of Ship Brokers of Rotterdam) has played a fairly important role in involving ship brokers and shipping companies.
Portbase CEO Iwan van der Wolf: “With this agreement we can share specific parts of data of MSC which are already available in the PCS, with another platform - Frugi Venta’s platform in this case. Fruit importers can make good use of this data for planning and transporting to the hinterland. This agreement makes it possible to offer loading data separately, which was not possible before. It concerns, and will continue to concern, company sensitive information, that a company might not want to make generally available. And that makes sense. But with this agreement we can firmly establish which data is and is not shared.”
Good agreements
This agreement offers possibilities for all kinds of data sharing in the logistics chain. Van der Wolf: “The sharing of data is becoming increasingly important for the efficiency of flows to and from the ports. By sharing more data, we make ports smarter and that allows us, as the Netherlands, to compete with surrounding countries. But in order to do that, we have to make good agreements. This agreement is an example of that.” Managing Director of MSC Netherlands, Theo van Ravesteyn: “MSC actively works on making the logistics chain in Dutch ports more efficient. The better sharing of data is an important precondition of that. MSC wants this to happen safely and reliably. We therefore made this agreement with Portbase so that we have clear agreements about which information can be shared and under what conditions that can be done.”
Trust
Iwan van der Wolf sees this agreement as an important step for future agreements on further data sharing. “Data sharing is about trust. Good agreements and fulfilling these agreements are inextricably linked with that. We are therefore looking at a generic plan of this agreement with NLIP, so that we can also start cooperating with other parties in this manner. By facilitating and guaranteeing these kinds of agreements, a better authorisation of sharing data is created. That makes sharing data increasingly valuable.”