Managing data across an entire fleet is a complex task!

For many, the perception is that this must be fully automated to be successful. The reality is, however, that fleets at different shipping companies are very diverse. Vessels can be owned, managed, or chartered at very different lengths of time, which means the return-on-investment (ROI) is very different for different vessels when it comes to which data-reporting technology to use.

How to collect the data available?

From vessels that are only chartered in for a short amount of time i.e. one-leg to a few months, the operator of the vessel will only need to monitor whether the vessel is performing according to the charter party (CP) in terms of performance. The investment in these vessels will therefore be very low and depend on manual reporting.

A vessel chartered in for anywhere between 5 months to a couple of years will most likely wish to monitor performance more in depth. However, getting hardware installed on a vessel that is not owned can be a challenging task. Therefore, also these vessels will most likely depend on manual reporting as well.

For vessels owned by a shipping company, or even very long-time charters, investing in sensor-based reporting systems generating automatic data logging, will most likely benefit from investing in sophisticated equipment.

Therefore, the diversity of vessels within a shipping company is great and not all vessels will be equipped with automatic data logging systems, and since no two vessels are the same, the task of collecting standardized data across the fleet can be complicated.

So how should a shipping company streamline its reporting to make sure all vessels can be compared?

Merging data

To combine the data, a main data source is needed which the other data source can then be projected onto. As we know within a shipping company there are many types of different vessels.

The preferred choice would therefore be to use the manually reported data as the main data source and then overlay the auto logged data into the existing sequence of the manual reports. This solution would be viable for most shipping companies and give the highest ROI.

To combine the data, a main data source is needed which the other data source can then be projected onto. As we know within a shipping company there are many types of different vessels.

The preferred choice would therefore be to use the manually reported data as the main data source and then overlay the auto logged data into the existing sequence of the manual reports. This solution would be viable for most shipping companies and give the highest ROI.

By using a product like Coach Solutions, the shipping company is able to have a base platform with a standardized noon-reporting format which is easy to install and implement, both on trip charters and on long TC’s or owned vessels.

Within Coach Onboard (noon reporting software), the noon report data can then be combined with the auto logged data available from different sources to get even more insight into the current performance of the vessel.

Importance of Data Validation

The question is then how do you make sure your manual reported data is of a quality which can be trusted and give the insight needed?

Standard manual reporting data such as clear text emails or Excel does not give the possibility for checking the data in depth before it reaches shore. Using a reporting software – such as Coach Onboard – gives the possibility for vessel specific data validation and comparing it with previously reported data before it reaches shore.

Once the data has reached shore, Coach Online will further validate the data to make sure the data exposed to the shipping company is as correctly as possible and can be “trusted” before making business crucial decisions and giving alerts so timely actions can be taken.

High quality data enables the right choices

Having the right data at the right time enables better and faster decisions to be made. If too much time is spent on trying to correct data, not enough time is left for taking data driven decisions which in the end can lead to costly mistakes being made.

It is therefore of high importance that the data used has been checked and validated to minimize the risk of faulty decisions. So, no matter the size or the composition of the fleet, investing in software that in a cost-effectively way can enable high quality data is key for keeping a company competitive and ahead of the game.

In Coach Solutions, we offer a competitive, easy to install and user-friendly software solution for collecting your data. Our Vessel Performance Management software will keep track and analyze all the data and generate useful Dashboards and reports allowing users to make better data driven decisions.

Finally, our Performance Team will overlook your data and vessels performance and will give you expert guidance on potential performance issues.