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Maersk Line expands contract for BigOceanData’s vessel tracking services

Giant container shipping line Maersk Line is boosting its deal with BigOceanData to provide vessel tracking services after an initial two-year contract in September 2016.

Vincent Wee, Hong Kong and South East Asia Correspondent

June 22, 2018

2 Min Read
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Maersk has now extended and expanded the contract for another 30 months to cover three times the original number of vessels and nearly double the number of users. Meanwhile, 300 vessels are also now in the process of adopting BigOceandata’s integrated Ship Security Alert System (SSAS) service.

​Over the past 18 months the BigOceanData vessel tracking system has successfully been used to track Maersk Line’s fleet using fused data feeds, where the BigOceanData system takes Maersk’s own vessel data received via Fleet Broadband and combines it with satellite and terrestrial AIS, backed up by ‘pay-as-you-go’ Inmarsat-C.

This delivers a service capable of providing position reports every 10 minutes both in open ocean and coastal waters. Maersk can then apply this information to optimise the performance of the fleet. This service is now covering up to 2,000 vessels carrying Maersk cargo and is accessed by up to 500 users.

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Maersk has also signed up 300 vessels for BigOceanData’s integrated SSAS option, which can send SSAS alerts to users by e-mail, SMS and/or a screen pop up. By integrating SSAS alerts with AIS data, security officers can view all the available information on a single screen and select additional overlays such as weather or sea state to enhance their awareness of a vessel’s situation

This is now in the process of being rolled out over a period of six months and will deliver cost savings by aggregating position data and thus reducing satellite data costs.

“We are pleased to be extending our relationship with BigOceanData,” said Stephan Martinussen, head of Global Vessel Performance Centre, at Maersk Line. “The system has performed well since its introduction and we continue explore its integration potential and the cost savings that can be derived from it.”

About the Author

Vincent Wee

Hong Kong and South East Asia Correspondent

Vincent Wee is Seatrade's Hong Kong correspondent covering Hong Kong and South China while also making use of his Malay language skills to cover the Malaysia and Indonesia markets. He has gained a keen insight and extensive knowledge of the offshore oil and gas markets gleaned while covering major rig builders and offshore supply vessel providers.

Vincent has been a journalist for over 15 years, spending the bulk of his career with Singapore's biggest business daily the Business Times, and covering shipping and logistics since 2007. Prior to that he spent several years working for Brunei's main English language daily as well as various other trade publications.

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