entered too early or too late, making the dispatch more efficient. In concert with Navis PrimeRoute, SmartPath reduces truck idle time and driving distance, resulting in lower operational costs through increased fleet utilisation, reduced fuel consumption and maintenance costs. “For a container terminal seeking aggressive growth, land area is almost always a constraining factor, so the only option is to increase throughput by becoming as efficient as possible,” notes Chuck Schneider, Vice President Operations, Automation, Kalmar. “For this, Watch the video terminal automation about SmartPath is the natural choice.” at Malta Freeport Malta Freeport Terminals at Terminals already www.youtube.com/ uses the Navis KalmarGlobal SPARCS Terminal Operating System as well as the Navis PrimeRoute solution that enables optimal, real-time routing, dispatching and monitoring of terminal tractors. Previously, the system still required manual input from tractor operators when moving from one job step to the next. “If the driver happened to hit the button too late or too early, the lifting equipment would either be in the wrong place or would have to wait. By automating this process, SmartPath allows PrimeRoute to fully optimise job dispatching,” says Schneider. Malta Freeport’s SmartPath implementation is based on GPS tracking of all 133 of its terminal tractors. The system provides a
bird’s eye view of the entire yard, making it easy to spot problems, such as, queues and congestion as soon as they develop. The solution was deployed on Malta Freeport’s existing fleet of tractors. “Our engineering team did a great job of retrofitting the solution to different types of non-Kalmar equipment,” notes Baldacchino.
Only the beginning With container volumes growing and a new generation of super sized container ships soon at the quayside, Malta Freeport is already looking to the future. “We will be sustaining our investment in similar technology to ensure that we stay ahead of our competitors in the region,” says Stephen Calleja, Operations Manager, Malta Freeport. “This is Malta Freeport’s first experience with terminal automation, but hopefully not the last,” adds Baldacchino. “We aim to continue on this path by implementing more options from the SmartPort suite.” Kalmar SmartPort process automation solutions increase productivity and equipment utilisation rate, improve safety and reduce the potential for manual errors. With Kalmar’s solutions, it is possible to get immediate productivity improvements for a relatively small initial investment. “Kalmar’s mission is to help our customers improve their productivity, and all of our SmartPort applications are created with this purpose in mind. It is all about adding advanced technology on top of existing systems to make them more efficient. If we can’t show this to a customer, we don’t expect them to buy it,” concludes Schneider.
Kalmar SmartPath s GPS-based solution that optimises the travel of terminal tractors and straddle carriers. s Provides job status updates and monitoring to allow terminal operators to better utilise these assets. s Improves performance through real-time location information. Maersk Line is one of the shipping lines using Malta Freeport as its transhipment hub.
s Provides accurate, detailed long-term data on the position of all prime movers.
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