FleetMon collaborates with worldwide logistics and shipping companies as well as with federal ministries, port authorities, and independent research institutes. Our extensive network, combined with over 13 years of experience, reveals our expertise and deep insights in vessel tracking and the shipping industry. Of course, FleetMon is aware of Greenhouse gas emissions debate and various parties’ viewpoints concerning the shipping industry’s effects on climate change and worldwide environmental pollution. Rather than to talk, FleetMon actively contributes to supporting transparency of CO2 emissions caused by commercial shipping.
Research project EmissionSEA
In March 2019, FleetMon published a press release about EmissionSEA (EMS), a significant research project. EmissionSEA is funded with around 1.5 million euros by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI). Since 2016, BMVI has been supporting Research & Development projects related to digital data-based applications for Mobility 4.0 with a research initiative called mFUND. Besides EMS, various inspiring projects to innovate future Mobility are part of mFUND.Read more…
In December 2019 FleetMon was invited to visit the Maritime Simulation Center Warnemünde (MSCW). The Maritime Simulation Center Warnemünde (MSCW) is part of the Department of Maritime Studies and a mandatory part of every maritime seagoing personnel education offered at the University of Applied Sciences, Technology, Business and Design in Wismar (Hochschule Wismar). Being located in Rostock Warnemünde, the center is not too far from the FleetMon headquarter. It is part of our FleetMon DNA to widen our horizons and strive for maritime expertise. For that reason, we like to organize team events and excursions on a regular basis. Besides that, it is always a lot of fun to spend some time with colleagues outside of the office.
Maritime Simulation Center Warnemünde
The Maritime Simulation Centre is the only one worldwide combining the simulation of nautical and technical vessel operations and a shore-based vessel traffic services simulator system. Four different simulator systems are to be found inside the center: A Ship Handling Simulator, a Ship Engine Simulator, a Vessel Traffic Services Simulator, and a Ship Safety & Security Trainer. The MSCW was built for education and training of the maritime seagoing personnel (e.g. nautical officers) and provides an excellent basis for research and development. We were especially interested to visit the Ship Handling Simulator and the Vessel Traffic Services Simulator.
In October 2019 a German producer and environmental activist turned to us in need of support for a documentary project. Together with his team, he examines if trash of German rivers could contribute to coastal pollution of the Lofoten, a group of islands in the north of Norway. The idea is to build buoys equipped with GPS devices and track their journey to demonstrate the flow of German plastics.
FleetMon values curiosity and ingenuity! We support the project team by sponsoring the first batch of GPS devices for free.
The devices will be placed inside customized buoys. The buoys are made of sustainable or recycled material to start their journey in the major German river Elbe to simulate how German trash might move.
Only one moment to take the perfect shot. Ship spotting is a hobby made for true vessel enthusiasts, crew members, people working in the nautical field and other maritime fans. Equipped with warm socks, raincoat, field glasses and most important – a camera – ship spotters head out to take pictures of all kinds of vessels: passenger ships, tankers, bulkers, cargo vessels – Nothing is safe from their focused lenses. German Ship spotters can be found at the major ports, terminals and nearby bridges of Hamburg, Cuxhaven, Kiel, and Warnemünde.
Ship spotters upload their pictures to vessel tracking platforms like FleetMon.com to enlarge their personal photo galleries. FleetMon is based in Rostock/ Germany and celebrates its 10th anniversary in summer 2020. During the last decade, far more than 600.000 vessel pictures have been added to our vessel image database. Providing users with high-quality pictures of over 70.000 different vessels truly adds value to our vessel database.
The world’s largest ever cruise ship is recently being built in Germany. Keel laying has been celebrated in September 2018. Today the huge midship started its’ journey from Rostock to Wismar. The midship body is 57 metres high and has been constructed in the dockyard of Rostock Warnemünde. The local newspaper “Ostseezeitung” installed a Live stream for enthusiasts to follow the progress of the transfer, just to point out the meaning of the event.
Since this happens right in front of FleetMon’s main office, we are all excited about the view. You can be part of the event and take a look at the huge cruise liner “Global Dream” using FleetMon’s Explorer ;).
In the upcoming hours the enormous segment will leave the dock, change direction and carefully move into the dockyard of Wismar. Start of the transport manoeuvre was planned for Friday (22.11.2019), 10 am and happened on schedule. According to plan the construction segment will arrive in the dockyard of Wismar on Saturday (23.11.2019) at 3 pm. Time of arrival will depend on local wind and weather conditions though. The distance between the Rostock Warnemünde and Wismar measures approximately 80 km by sea route. A total of six tugboats is needed to pull the midship out of the dockyard area. After leaving the dockyard the huge object needs to change direction. Afterwards the massive construction part is moved towards Wismar with an average speed of 2 knots.
The conveyance is regarded as a huge historical event due to the giant measures of the segment being 220 m long. Referring to MV Werften the event is a huge challenge for all involved parties. Besides six tugboats, other specialized vessels, water police department and the department for waterways and vessel traffic in Stralsund are monitoring the manoeuvre. The journey of the midship is another step towards finishing the world’s largest cruise ship called “Global Dream” in spring 2021.
We are currently developing the world’s best marine routing network, with more than 2 million network points, and of course we want to tell the universe about it. There’s no better place for this than the world’s leading trade fair for logistics, mobility and IT – the transport logistic in Munich. This is where the logistics industry meets.
At the fair we will be presenting, for the first time, the software prototype for the research project MERMAID. The plan is to start selling the routing algorithm in early 2020 or to fully integrate it into our production system. FleetMon is one of the few companies in the world with its own routing network optimized completely for the logistics chain. As part of the MERMAID project, we have worked together with our research partner, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), to further optimize FleetMon’s existing routing algorithm and to extract the last 5 percent.
Yesterday all project members of the 1st status meeting of the research project EmissionSEA exchanged information about their previous work. Fraunhofer CML, Wismar University of Applied Sciences, DLR, JAKOTA Design Group and FleetMon are developing a software prototype based on AIS data that determines and evaluates the fuel consumption and thus the CO2 emissions of ships. Another goal is to measure performance in order to make the ships comparable with each other. This is because the CO2 emissions of the ships can be put in relation to the distance covered or the speed curve. By calculating an optimal route and speed, a target/actual comparison is possible, which results in an evaluation of the efficiency and performance of a ship. These values help shipping companies to compare their own fleet with the ships of other operators. The mFund project is scheduled to run until 31.12.2020 and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport with around 1.5 million euros.
Why the project? Since 1 August 2018, shipping companies have been obliged to report their CO2 emissions to the EU. The first report is due in 2 weeks (1 April 2019). The reporting obligation applies to the entire voyage of ships sailing in and through European waters.
Yesterday the local television also visited FleetMon, our project manager Carsten Hilgenfeld explained and answered all the questions about the project. You can get a pictorial insight into the research project in the TV.Rostock Nachrichten. Probably tomorrow at 6 p.m. Switch on or visit their media library https://www.tvrostock.de/mediathek.html.
The acronym MERMAID stands for Maritime Routing Maps based on AIS Data. In this research project, which started in October 2017, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is developing a method for the automated calculation of plausible ship routes. The aim is to improve the prediction of arrival times in order to optimise logistics chains and corresponding processes for sea transport.
According to REUTERS, the Vietnamese tanker Viet Tan 01 – loaded with 2000 tons of gasoline – was on its way from Singapore via Taiwan to the port of Namp’o , North Korea. However, referring to the AIS messages the destination of the vessel is the small port city Daesan, South Korea. This information is unchanged since 2019-02-16. Due to sanctions by the United Nations, the delivery of refined petroleum products and crude oils is strongly restricted for North Korea.
On Monday, 2019-02-25 17:05 local time, a signal of the 104 meter in length tanker shows, that the vessel is heading towards the port of Namp’o. The next signal, received at 2019-02-27 13:00 local time, indicates, that the ship is going to leave the terminal in the port of Namp’o completely.
There were no position signals received during the two days while the ship was on the west coast of North Korea (see dashed line in the image). Three hours later, the vessel left the port area entirely and heading for the Yellow Sea with about 8 knots.
In the evening of the same day, about 19:40 local time, the tanker reached the north coast of the island Chosa Dong. On 2019-02-28 about 04:00 local time, the vessel stopped for the anchorage. It stayed there for 16 hours and finally moved in direction of the Yellow Sea.
german version
Der Vietnamesische Tanker Viet Tan 01 – mit 2000 Tonnen Benzin beladen – laut der Meldung von REUTERS,war von Singapur, über Taiwan nach Nordkorea (Namp’o) unterwegs. Sein Ziel ist laut Datenmeldung vom 16.02.2019 unverändert die kleine Hafenstadt Daesan in Südkorea. Aufgrund von Sanktionen, durch die Vereinten Nationen, ist Nordkorea stark eingeschränkt, was den Erhalt von raffinierten Mineralöl-Erzeugnissen und Rohölen angeht.
Am Montag, 25.02.2019, 17.05 Ortszeit wurde das letzte Signal des 104 langen Tankers empfangen. Offensichtlich fuhr das Schiff gen Hafen Namp’os. Erst zwei Tage später wurde ein weiteres Signal empfangen. Das war ca. 13 Uhr Ortszeit, als das Schiff das Terminal im Nordkoreanischen Namp’o verließ und schließlich 3 Stunden später dann das gesamte Hafengebiet komplett verließ. In diesen 2 Tagen gab es keine Positionsmeldungen für den Bereich der Westküste Nordkoreas (gestrichelte Linie in der Grafik).
Mit rund 8 Knoten bewegte sich das Schiff erneut Richtung Gelbes Meer. Am Abend des Mittwochs, 27.02.2019 gegen 19.40 Uhr Ortszeit erreichte der Tanker die Nordküste der Insel Chosa Dong. Auf Reede ging es ca. 4 Uhr morgens. 16 Stunden später fuhr es weiter Richtung Gelbes Meer.
Am Mittwoch, den 20.02.2019 waren unsere FleetMon-Mitarbeiter (Fleetmänner ;-) ) Carsten Hilgenfeld und Daniel Merkel zu Gast beim Mittelstand 4.0-Kompetenzzentrum Lingen. Dieses ist Teil des Programms Mittelstand-Digital, welches vom Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie gefördert wird. Dabei wird u.a. die Branche der Maritimen Wirtschaft gezielt unterstützt.
Carsten Hilgenfeld, als Leiter für Forschung und Entwicklung bei FleetMon tätig, hielt vor einem Fachpublikum aus der maritimen Wirtschaft einen Vortrag zum Thema: Beobachtung des Warenstroms von seltenen Erden für die Batterieproduktion. Im Fokus stand dabei die Vorstellung des Arbeitsfeldes Terminal Monitoring, welches FleetMon betreut. Insbesondere geht es dabei um die Überwachung von Seeterminals, an denen die Schiffe anlegen und ihre Waren, in dem Falle die seltenen Erden wie Kobalt, Lithium und Coltan, welche zur Herstellung der Autobatterien genutzt werden, auf- und abladen.
