iBarge announces that it will integrate BigMile for the inland shipping sector. The app will have a special CO2 module to provide chartering offices and skippers with insight into emissions data for their own accounting. 'CO2 reduction is really a chain issue. As an ICT partner, we would like to play a facilitating role in this', says Marius Hakkesteegt, Business Developer at iBarge.
Inland shipping is digitizing at a rapid pace. All kinds of applications are becoming available that make it possible to share information and make it more transparent. With iBarge, skippers can communicate the status of the transport, receive and submit documents digitally, and share relevant information about availability or absence with their charterers. 'Thanks to BigMile, information about CO2 emissions is now automatically added to these data flows with the new CO2 module in iBarge,' says Ilona Kuipers, Product Owner of iBarge.
'BigMile is fed with data from iBarge. The calculations that BigMile returns via the so-called Emission API are forwarded to the shippers' back office system', Kuipers explains. 'This is used for reporting in the transport chain, so that the skippers do not have to do an unnecessary amount of work. The data is not stored in iBarge or BigMile and is not made public.'
Bringing data streams together
Inland vessels are by definition more energy efficient than trucks, if we consider the amount of cargo that can be transported at a time. In inland shipping, however, CO2 emissions for transport by inland vessel are a lot more difficult to measure than, for example, by truck, because there is a wide variety of vessel types. 'We help the inland shipping sector by bringing multiple data streams together in one software solution, thus giving charterers the right tools to make emissions transparent and comparable,' says Marius Hakkesteegt.
Jan Pronk, Managing Director of BigMile: 'It is fantastic to see that inland shipping pays so much attention to the environment and the reduction of its footprint, while the share of inland shipping in the entire CO2 emissions of the transport sector in the Netherlands is relatively small, less than 5 percent. is low. In the transport chain, however, it is becoming increasingly important to gain insight into CO2 emissions at ship and voyage level. With iBarge we have found a good partner for CO2 monitoring in inland shipping to take this to a higher level.'
