Digitalisation for sustainable sea transports

Book chapter, 2015

The long history of shipping has created an industry with many autonomous players operating with a high degree of independence but with a need for episodic tight coupling to fulfil individual goals. For example, a ship cannot deliver its cargo without close cooperation with a pilot, tug and terminal operator. Despite this need for episodic tight coupling, the industry has not undergone the digital transformation that would enable data sharing to make coupling more efficient and reduce costs. Furthermore, we have presented a plan for realising STM that is highly cognisant of the nature of the industry. We advocate a digital transformation that preserves independence by allowing each party to manage access to its data and to decide when it will join the digital revolution. Our plan is based on creating an open market with complementary standards that facilitates coordination through data streaming and enables existing information intermediaries, such as shipping agents and new infomediaries provided by entrepreneurial information services, to adapt and emerge to meet the industry’s information needs. In this chapter, we have described a series of digitally-based information services centred on STM that will accelerate digital transformation of the shipping industry and provide Europe with more efficient, safer and environmentally sustainable ship transportation.