PORT ST. MAARTEN – Port St. Maarten Management is on the verge of launching its Port Community System (PCS) that involves data-sharing among stakeholders and third parties covering cargo and cruise operations at the country’s sea-port of entry.
PCS is an extension of Port St. Maarten’s Terminal Operating System that would further enhance the port’s operational excellence platform linking for example cargo/container manifest to an incoming/outgoing vessel to warehouse/storage handling and receiver pick-up.
Stakeholders and prospective main holders of the system are very impressed and excited with the port in creating a single window platform for big data centralization that would further increase overall efficiency in port operations.
The PCS will allow all key parties such as agents to be connected to a secure cloud-based approach system which will enhance information sharing with the primary focus being on sustainable business development for the St. Maarten port community along with information data centric sharing with Customs, Coast Guard, Maritime Affairs, Immigration & Border Protection, Public Health and possibly other Government entities.
PCS would allow for the production of statistics and data analytics for actionable business intelligence.
Port St. Maarten currently uses the Global Logistics Service (GLS) cargo tracking software and plans to transition to PCS. PCS allows for one central system that connects all stakeholders.
It will be a real-time platform making it easy to access vital information and quality data and can also provide economic data to be used for analysis and government policy decision-making.
The overall objective is to have a complete information technology system in place at the port that allows stakeholders to access real-time information about container movements as well as contents. This initiative is also in line with border security and compliance with international rules and regulations.
IT Partner, an information technology firm in the Netherlands, are experts in automation systems for port and logistics industries. The company has been in operation since 1999 and has clients that include terminal operators, logistics companies and complete ports, offering tailor-made solutions that fit customer needs.
The PCS is tied to the strategic approach initiative of the port to ensure long-term sustainability of operations that would lead to further growth in overall operations.
The cargo operations at Port St. Maarten are rapidly becoming a port of choice for regional transshipment in the northeastern Caribbean. Transshipment cargo continues to bolster the hub function of the port with the Caribbean region and the double-digit figure trend continues.
Recent statistics for the month of August shows a remarkable performance which is in line with projections. Port St. Maarten Cargo Operations for August saw a 21 per cent increase in import full containers when compared with projections.
Port St. Maarten’s priority is security first, ensuring safe, secure use of Port Community Systems.
The Port Community system will also allow for increased efficiency where logistics and movement of containers is concerned, thereby increasing the competitiveness of the destination in the area of cargo and transshipment operations.
