Thessaloniki Port Authority SA (ThPA) is a private listed company, which is the Concessionaire and the Operator of the Port of Thessaloniki. The Port of Thessaloniki is strategically located close to the major TransEuropean motorway and railway networks providing direct access to the Southeastern European Countries. It serves containers, bulk and general cargo as well as cruise vessels and passengers. It occupies a total space of 155ha and it spreads across a length of 3.5km. The installations include 6 piers spreading on a 6.200 meter-long quay and a sea depth down to 12 meters. The Port serves on an annual basis, about 2000 vessels, 4million tons of bulk and general cargo 400.000 TEUs containers. Large investment plans are in progress with the most important to be the expansion of the container terminal aiming to double the capacity and obtain a deep sea capability to handle vessels up to 18.000 TEUs. Currently, ThPA serves 20 million people in hinterland with plans to raise the value to 45 million.
Ports are the nodes in the global network providing a key link between sea and land and the connection with the hinterland. The port community or the port ecosystem consists of a variety of stakeholders like port authorities, terminal operators, shipping companies and agents, rail operators, logistics service providers, trucking companies and inspection authorities like Customs, Hygienic services etc. In the last years, the port ecosystem stakeholders have developed several solutions with focus on individual business needs. As the transport industry becomes more demanding in terms of increased efficiency and lowered costs, sharing and timely provision of accurate information between the business network is more critical than ever. The type of data exchanged and shared must support the operational and decision-making needs. The trend for Digital Ports asks for the exploitation of the capabilities of available systems with new techniques to better organize and co-organise, operate and co-operate towards management of supply chains.
Scenarios:
Data driven application for strategic and real time decision making: It aims to support ThPA ecosystem stakeholders to better organize and manage the pickup and delivery of containers, with emphasis to land gate access, by utilizing the data available by several sources and the capabilities of DataPorts platform regarding analytics, predictions and blockchain technology
Improve mobility of passengers, professionals and visitors of the port: It aims to interrelate the availability of people mobility data with port related services, so to improve the quality of services offered to the mutual benefit.
Benefits that will be obtained by implementing the use case:
The advantages of the proposed scenarios are:
- Support and facilitate ThPA for proactive and reactive actions regarding the operation of Gate Control System
- Improve the operational performance of the port supply chain and consequently of the whole supply chain
- Increase visibility of operations for stakeholders involved
- Improve the environmental burden caused by trucks traffic
- Offer to passengers, professionals and visitors of ThPA related mobility information as a service (e.g. analytics) to facilitate their interactions with the port.
- Align and improve the services of shipping companies and greater local community, taking into account the port traffic
Involved partners:
- Thessaloniki Port Authority: Data provider and pilot leader
- Traxens (TRX): Smart assets data and services provider
- Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation S.A. (OTE): Data provider and integrator
- Institute of Communications and Computer Systems (ICCS): Integrator and involvement in pilot evaluation activities
- Everis (EVR): providing the environment for the secure and reliable sharing of data
- Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH): Pilot coordinator and integrator