P&O Nedlloyd Installs Digitrace

Container line P&O Nedlloyd has decided to install Digitrace fleet-wide – providing a system of digital Notice to Mariners and tracings. P&O Nedlloyd chose to implement Digitrace after a few months of successful trials onboard two vessels. “Our decision was not cost driven in the first place – The main reason was to reduce the administrative workload both onboard the vessels but also in the office.” says Stephen Bligh, General Manager Fleet of P&O Nedlloyd. “The vessels are impressed with the speed of information, the tools for working with corrections for charts and publications as well as the service from the supplier. Important to note is that the total cost of the service – including communication costs, etc – is actually lower than our previous paper system. With our new e-mail system and the technical development, this will improve even further” confirms Tjeerd de Vos, responsible for the implementation and Manager Nautical and Audits.

Digital Lists of Lights are also part of the package in Digitrace that P&O Nedlloyd is using. The Digitrace system is supplied by Montreal-based chart agent Marine Press of Canada. It works with a weekly e-mail, where the ships get the correction information from the official authorities (UKHO, NOAA and others) within 48 hours of their release. This is an important safety improvement from the old way of waiting several weeks before receiving the paper NtMs. Another major advantage of Digitrace is that all the correction information is customized to the vessel’s inventory of charts and publications, thus saving time onboard.