SA vessel-alerting
service set to change the way we operate
ARE YOU a shipper with email and a willingness to be part of a pioneering project that will transform the way importers and exporters operate?
FTW's sister internet publication, Cargo Info Africa, is ready to start testing the second phase of a world first programme that will enable every South African importer and exporter to be alerted to vessel arrivals and changes to sailing dates by email.
Email has been chosen because many companies do not allow wide access to the internet but do allow for email.
The first phase has seen the loading of all the sailings from the different lines onto a single major database that is updated daily and which, since last month, is being used to generate automatically the sailing schedules published in FTW's Easifinder.
Now volunteers are being sought to use emailed forms about specific vessels so that they can be alerted by email automatically when a ship is about to arrive or changes its date. In the case of exporters, they will be alerted to the opening of stack dates or to the latest information regarding which vessels are sailing to one of several hundred ports in a given date range.
The objective is ultimately to offer the service through freight forwarders, but for the test phase importers and exporters are being sought for the service which will be known as Ahoy!
Interested in being part of this project? Send an email to CIA editor Gaile Thompson at gailet@nowmedia.co.za (or telephone her at 0828942814).
