Vehicle passengers can arrive at the terminal just a few minutes before onboarding begins.
Impact case
The Smart Port solution, developed by Nortal, is the epitome of streamlined port management. By harnessing the power of service design, data, IoT, and automation, Nortal redesigned all interactions from digital environments to physical contact points at the harbor. This solution actualizes truly streamlined port operations and a seamless customer journey from the digital ticket system up to the point of embarking.
SOLUTION
The Smart Port solution provides a fully automated, intelligent user experience from traffic and trade flows to operations and customer management. Orchestrating the data between hundreds of hardware units significantly improves the port area’s utilization and efficiency. Check-in and gathering area waiting times are reduced by more than 50% with pre-gate and real-time vehicle data, automated lane management, and loading area guidance. Thus, enabling faster traffic flow, lowering congestion, optimizing ship operations and terminal work, and servicing more departures at the same terminal area.
The Smart Port solution provides passengers with a smooth, intuitive, and personalized experience when boarding the ship, including automatic traffic guidance through the port entrance and a unique unattended vehicle check-in system based on automatic license plate recognition. The entire check-in and loading process is covered, from online trip booking to the automated check-in procedures and automatic traffic management at the port area – right up to getting on the ship.
Smart Port enables efficient port area management by using large information displays that help to reconfigure the port area as needed. Various digital measurement sensors and automated gateways are used for flexible traffic guidance for passengers, staff, and port vehicles.
TECHNICAL SOLUTION
The Smart Port solution is an intelligent management server application that interfaces with various external systems and periphery devices, such as automatic number-plate recognition, measuring systems, traffic lights, barrier gates, and information displays, that improve traffic management at the port.
Furthermore, the Smart Port solution is adapted, scaled, and tailored according to the unique needs of every independent port, while integrating all the port area hardware units with a mix of technologies from ticketing, security, automation, etc., to third-party integrations constituting an open digital ecosystem.
The Smart Port intelligent traffic-flow and port area management solution is a Nortal-built concept developed in close cooperation with hardware vendors, mainly using Java technologies on top of the port’s hardware infrastructure.
Port of Tallinn aims to become the most innovative port on the shores of the Baltic Sea by offering its customers the best environment and development opportunities. The goal is to minimize the time spent in the port by providing a fully integrated, all-inclusive, easy-to-understand service for passengers with vehicles, accelerated processes for cargo handling, and streamlined infrastructure for efficient day-to-day port area management.
Nortal has successfully implemented the Smart Port intelligent traffic-flow and port area management solution in eight different Estonian ports. The solution provides seamless check-in and boarding experiences for millions of passengers and cargo vehicles per year and clear traffic management at the port.
The Smart Port solution, developed by Nortal, has helped Tallinn Port to overcome its challenges by improving the utilization of the port area, simplifying and accelerating check-in processes, reducing waiting time, congestion and enhancing the user experience for passengers, along with a faster turnaround time for the ferry operators.
44%
Reduced waiting time during check-in and boarding
95%
Faster pass-through time via automated lanes
73%
Net Promoter Score (NPS) increased from 40% to 73% (2017 to 2020)
759 kg
Less CO2 pollution and 330L fuel used per year (per 3.0L vehicle)*
30,000
Personnel hours per year saved due to the decreased need for check-in and staging area staff
90%
Of employees are satisfied with the easy-to-use new system
*Numbers are based on calculations via Natural Resources Canada: https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/efficiency/communities-infrastructure/transportation/idling/4457