AVTI – vehicles
Vehicles transhipment and storage management at the Port of Koper Car Terminal
We developed the AVTI computer support system with the intention to offer support to planning administrative work, receiving and shipping vehicles and implementation of service operations with vehicles which are moved through the car terminal of Luka Koper as cargo.
By regularly recording all vehicles movements from entrance to exit the application ensures an updated overview of the current state of each vehicle and its current location in the terminal. The process of capturing the vehicles’ identification information is supported with portable barcode readers which is standard equipment on all vehicles during transportation.
Accepting announcements of vehicles’ arrival and shipping orders, which are necessary for a successful operating planning and preparation of work and storage areas, as well as notifying about actual vehicle movements, is carried out between clients requesting services, owners of the vehicles and the provider of services at the terminal exclusively by computer data exchange. Each cargo owner may view the status of its vehicles at the terminal and the performed operations on the web portal (washing, initial service check-up, change of location, data on vehicles shipped by trains, trucks,…).
The application supports the collection of data on vehicles at the terminal with the use of barcode readers. The quantity of captured data on vehicles peaks at the arrival of the cargo ship (unloading for example 5000 vehicles can be carried out in a few hours), which is added to regular services for stored and shipped vehicles (daily shipment between 500 and 1000 vehicles by trains and trucks).
Receiving electronic announcements of the arrival and shipment of vehicles and preparing reports about performed movements of stored and shipped vehicles is supported in the form of different formalized electronic messages. The content of the messages (structure) is defined by individual vehicle manufacturers or vehicle owners.
Due to different requests for an up-to-date data exchange between the car terminal and the cargo owners, and the need of cargo owners for different regular and ad hoc enquiries about the current status of their stocks at the terminal, the application enables the managers of the terminal to quickly adapt to new requests for new types of messages. Users of the system may only prepare filters for the conversion of received electronic messages into an internal form and to import data in a database. In the same way they can prepare filters for data export and for creating custom, client-adjusted formalized electronic messages for electronic data exchange with their information systems. To view the current storage status they can prepare web forms adjusted to individual clients in the web application iQuery for dynamic web queries.
The application’s core is written in the C++ programming language for the Windows operating environment and is based on the relational database ORACLE. The AVTI system exchanges also data with the central record of cargo in the Port. On the basis of received electronic messages (work dispositions) the system returns lists of serial numbers of transhipped vehicles to the central port system, updating also the central storage record of the Port of Koper.
The advantage of the AVTI system is mainly its openness and adjustability to changes taking place on the global market between car manufacturers. We are constantly developing and adjusting the system according to changing requirements set by cargo, suppliers and cargo buyers, and according to the needs of the terminal operator itself.
In more than ten years of use the system increased its starting annual traffic of 30,000 vehicles in 1997 to 500,000 vehicles in 2007. The entire AVTI information system is managed by only two dispatchers: one is in contact with field operators, and the other is in contact with service clients and vehicle owners (preparing data, reports, receiving work orders, creating different daily, weekly, monthly statistics, controlling performed services in the storage facilities, assessing damages, etc.)
AVTI Portal
The AVTI system is supported by the web applications iQuery or iQplus, intended for external clients, and by 3Pquery for batch processing and data preparation for other systems at the Port of Koper.
The iQuery application enables the preparation of web forms tailor-made for each individual client, enabling them to log into the web portal and browse in real time data about their cargo travelling through the Car Terminal. Queries can be different views of the current state of cars in storage facilities, views of the cargo movement history, preparation of various lists and reports according to different criteria, and finally the creation of customized, formalized electronic messages adjusted to the client for the electronic exchange of data with the client’s information system. It is accessible to external users through a purpose car terminal portal.
The 3Pquery is a beck-end service intended for processing operating data and the preparation of summary data which it exchanges with the TinO system of the Port of Koper.
