On coordinating document exchange in maritime containerized transport: the STM project

Maritime transport involves many stakeholders, whose decisions and actions affect the whole logistic chain of containerized transport. In this context, ports play a crucial role, since their operation performance determines the quality of containerized transport. Port call processes should be coordinated, and optimized, not only during planning, but also in realizing and evaluating conducted port calls. In fact, nowadays the document exchange in maritime transport is definitely too fragmented. A major reason why is that involved port actors usually try to get access to, and retain control of, information that is valuable with respect to their own goals. As a result, seaport approaches are often uncoordinated. Such a lack of coordination in information exchange among all the involved actors provokes at least a significant waste of time, and an avoidable decrease of maritime transport efficiency. Then, the challenge of designing and implementing an effective coordination in document exchange in maritime transportation should be taken and won, as also European Commission fosters.