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Features

The Harbour

Harbour Master 2 is web based and you can use any of the major browsers to operate the system. No plug-ins, no installation. It runs on regular computers, tablets and smart phones.

Port of Narvik, in northern Norway
Port of Narvik, in northern Norway

 

The system is designed to assist harbours, and others who want to track or manage vessel activity in a harbour or a region.

  • Register expected vessels and plan arrivals.
  • Get notified when a vessel approaches or enter an area.
  • Get instant, accurate reports about the current and historic vessel activity in all harbour areas

The reports can be exported to other systems, such as the harbour's accounting, using XML files or the HBM (SOAP) web service.

 

Easily publish overview reports, e.g. latest arrivals, on your public web site. Provide public information and services to the community, using myport.link. You can invite others, such as local newspapers to publish the harbour activity on their sites. Read more ...

The Harbour Master server is hosted in the Cloud, but provides for local needs. Reports use the harbour's local time, and the user interface (UI) uses your local language. Currently supported languages  Norway  . If your local language is not supported, let us know. We are aiming to expand the number of UI languages supported.

For more information, please see the Harbour Master FAQ and System Requirements.

Main Screens

Chart The Chart shows the live vessel status in the harbour. Multiple chart types are available. A 15-minute vessel track shows traffic movement. View tracks to review incidents.

 Vessel in Harbour report Reports list all vessels visiting different harbour areas.
The Vessel In Harbour (VIH) report helps the user, typically a harbour operator, to process the visitors in the harbour. Reports are based on visits in user-defined harbour Areas . Harbour Master reports a visit from when the vessel first enters an area.

Home Vessel Home Vessels are not included in the Vessel In Harbour report. A typical home vessel is a tug or a pilot boat working in the harbour. Further filtering of non-invoicable visits can be done at area level.

Search for Vessels and Visits.

Export and Transfer Export Data. The area visits can be exported to the external systems, such as your accounting system. The export is done using XML files or calling the HBM web service (SOAP).

HBM Account In HBM Account manage the harbour settings and users. The harbour settings include the harbours timezone and preferred language.
 

The Chart

The vessels are displayed in (nearThere is a short processing delay before the vessels are displayed in the chart. The normal delay is 1-2 minutes.) real-time. They show a 15 minute trail which highlights the traffic movements.

Vessels are displayed proportional to their actual size, if the system has received all the values to render it.

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On the right side of the chart are the menu pull bars (the '+' icons).
The top one selects the chart types and overlays. The second one is the vessel search.

Vessel Track
Vessel Track

A variety of chart types are available. In some areas we offer nautical ENC charts.

By clicking on a vessel, the vessel details are displayed. From this dialog you also have access to the track display.

Harbour Master records all reported positions within the defined areas. You can quickly analyze current or historic tracks. A great tool when reviewing past vessel activity.

The display of vessels, areas and names are all chart overlays, which you can toggle on or off.

Playback

Users can play back traffic scenarios, which shows the movement of all vessels in the harbours. It can be run in slow, normal or fast mode. In fast mode, you can quickly analyze past activity. For interesting periods, slow the playback down to get more detail. Playback works 1 year back, assuming data is available.

Fleet

A fleet of vessels can be defined for special tracking. These vessels are highlighted in the chart and the reports.

Harbour Visits

Pre arrival ...

Notifications and Expected Vessels List

Track the arrival of individual vessels in the chart, and have the system notify you via SMS or email, when the vessel approaches or enters the destination area.

Maintain a list of expected vessels and assign a destination area for the arriving vessel.

Register arrival documents, e.g. notice of arrival and crew lists, by drag & drop. You can also write or paste notes.

At arrival ...

Automatic generation of visit reports

If you invoice or provide statistics for harbour visits, it is wanted to track vessel area visits. Manual reporting be inaccurate or missing all-together. Harbour Master (HBM) helps avoid "loosing" area visit reports by automating the process.

Harbour Master registers a new visit once a vessel enters the harbour. Each harbour visit is assigned a unique VisitNr.
As the vessel visits areas inside the harbour, the visit report is automatically updated.

Layer 1

The visit list is automatically created and updated by Harbour Master, based on received AIS signals.

Export XML File
Export XML File

For each visit the system will record entry - stop - start - exit.

Harbour Master tells the certainty of the reported times, by also reporting how each reported time was determined. The "action code", as HBM calls it, specifies this. For instance, the action code "-", means that a stop was recorded for the vessel and all is well.

In areas with poor, fluctuating AIS coverage, it can occur that the AIS signals disappear for periods of time. In such periods HBM doesn't know where the vessel has actually been and indicates this with a warning by the area name.
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Filter visits

Typically, it is not wanted to export all visits by all vessels. HBM has several filtering mechanisms, which lets you filter or remove unwanted visits.

Pass-through visits, i.e. an area visit where the vessel travels through without stopping, are recorded as such. If wanted, the operator can quickly ignore these visits and have them removed from the exported visit list.

The pilots, tugs, etc. that work in the harbour, can be marked as being "Home vessels". Such vessels are not included in the report.

Areas can be marked as being "No Export". Visits in "no export" areas are included in the report, but they are not exported.

Register observed values

Observations are manually recorded data that can be attached to the harbour/area visits. For any observation type there can be 2 values. One at arrival and one at departure. Observed values are of user-defined types, and they are integrated in the report.

Examples of observations can be "Observed arrival / departure", "Tons unloaded / loaded", "Passengars". You are however free to define any type of value that is relevant to you.

Automatic generation of service call reports

Service vessels (typically port tenders) provide ship services e.g. deliveries, pick-ups and personnel transport to anchored vessels. Each visit is a "service call".

The service vessel should, after the return, report the visit for invoicing & statistics. Manual reporting may not always work as hoped.
Harbour Master (HBM) helps avoid loosing service call reports, by automating the process.

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You can easily play back the scenario and watch it in the chart.

Previous (and next) ports reported

Previous ports are listed on arrival. After departure follow the next ports the vessel visits. (Assuming there is AIS coverage where the vessel travelled).

Export to Excel

Send the report to an Excel spreadsheet in native xlsx format.

Export to external systems

Click on image to download sample XML
Click on image to download sample XML

An export can be done as soon as a harbour visit has been created.

Multiple targets types are supported

  • Manual.
  • SOAP transfer. (External system pulls data) using a web service
  • Direct database transfer (HBM pushes data) to target database, at customer site.

 

 

 

Print a receipt

There is a "print receipt" function for each visit, which formats the display in a printer/receipt friendly way. This print-out can be attached as a receipt when issuing the invoice.

Receipt example
Receipt example

Area Editor

You define your areas, using the area editor. It operates in an intuitive click and drag manner. When defined, save the area. Within  minutes you should see vessels inside it (assuming some are there).

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Area types

All harbour areas are assumed to be inside a "periphery" area, which defines the harbour's boundary.

Harbour Master will only display vessels that are inside a defined area. To extend the vessel view "outside" areas can be defined. Visits in "outside" areas are not included in the visit report.

Area configuration

The user can attach codes to an area, which typically are used to synchronize the area with an account in the accounting system.

Enforce Limits

The limits module allows you set the max/min speed limit for an area. This can be used to enforce speed limits or implement no-go areas. An audible alarm can be triggered, which will quickly alert available personnel about the violation. The module can also be used to monitor other types of areas, e.g. protected fishing zones.

Overlapping areas

Harbour Master can handle overlapping areas. That is, when 2 areas occupy (partially) the same space, the vessel should still be assigned to the correct/intended area.

Restrictions

Your HBM subscription will limit both the number of areas you can create and the size of these.

 

The Community

Harbours can increase awareness of harbour activity in the local community by sharing live information about events in the harbour, e.g. arrivals and departures. Harbour Master can publish live overview reports in HTML format, which can easily be integrated into other web sites, e.g. the harbour's public web site or web sites for local newspapers, etc.

The HBM overview reports, latest arrivals, etc., can easily be integrated into your web site, by using the "Publishing" feature.

The reports can include a link to myport.link, a public site serving HBM installations. Try it!

HBM publishing allows you to either integrate an IFrame into your web site's HTML code, or inject HTML using your server side (e.g. PHP) code.

Using the IFrame integration is very easy. Just copy the IFrame template, adjust the URL to the one listed in your HBM account page and paste it into your web sites HTML code. Less than 5 minutes required. However, the IFrame plugin does not allow you to adjust the styling.

The "HTML plugin" is best used in server side code, e.g. PHP. It injects the report HTML, which does not contain any styling. Thus it will use the local styling rules, which you can tweak to achieve a full, seamless integration. This plugin is also very easy to use, but it requires some programming skills.

Read more on Overview reports on web site