“Of course, the reason for this is the general growth in maritime traffic. Approximately 35% of the ships visiting Finnish ports use pilots,” explains Kari Kosonen, the CEO Finnpilot.
Last year, 25,616 pilotage assignments were completed, racking up 484,959 nautical miles of pilotage.
“We are particularly happy to see that our customer satisfaction ratings have remained excellent and 99.9% of all pilotage assignments were carried out within the waiting time limits set in our targets.
“Thanks to the continuous development and cost-efficiency of our operations, we have also succeeded in keeping the pilotage prices stable. In fact, our price level is moderate compared with the other countries in Northern Europe.”
Added value for customers
Kosonen states that developing various applications is the everyday business of the company.
“This is how we develop our own operations from the perspectives of safety and efficiency. At the same time, we can also offer added value to our customers. For example, the introduction of the mPilot mobile app has consigned paper-based pilotage processes to history, and all the information related to pilotage is transferred electronically to all parties involved as soon as the pilotage assignment has been completed.
We have just launched a new pilotage ordering system – Pilot Online – which enables customers to submit preliminary information, order pilotage, change information they have previously entered and monitor the orders they have placed.
“In practice, this provides customers with the option of monitoring the up-to-date situational picture on pilotage concerning the ships they operate that our pilot dispatchers maintain 24/7 in our center. We now aim to point customers towards placing more orders using the app and fewer by the phone or email.”
The next step will be to offer customers additional information from the Pilot PRO application, which was deployed for pilots two years ago.
“In the near future, the ships engaged in the STM project information exchange will be able to download Finnpilot’s route plans onto the ship’s own navigation system, so the ship’s master and pilot are almost literally ‘on the same page’.”
Data for development work
In 2018, Finnpilot’s AISLab system also underwent further development. The system is able to analyze and visualize numerous different simultaneous vessel movements and changes in ships course and speed. The system provides the option of processing historical data on how various situations have developed during pilotage.
“AISLab lays a strong foundation for organizational learning and for using the collected data for training purposes. Automated analysis functions will also be integrated into the system.”
Trials of remote pilotage
Remote pilotage means that pilot performs his or her duties somewhere other than onboard the vessel. For example, they may be located in an on-shore monitoring center.
“Our new Pilotage Act now enables trials of remote pilotage. Conducting a remote pilotage experiment will require wide-ranging collaboration between maritime industry and academia. We are heavily involved in developing remote pilotage as a part of the Sea4Value (S4V) project prepared within the One Sea ecosystem. Funding application for S4V was submitted to Business Finland earlier this year.
Text Vaula Aunola Photos FINNPILOT
