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Maersk Line expands contract for BigOceanData’s vessel tracking services

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.

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.”