Eliminating Liability of incorrect Berthing
Guardian Solution creates zones for ships to queue to eliminate bething congestion and incorrect allocation.
Challenge
Geraldton Port in West Australia has 25 anchorage zones. Ships are directed to these zones as they queue to enter the busy port, which handles millions of tons of trade each year.
Vessels were therefore competing for berths with the port potentially liable for incorrect allocations.
Weather systems cause conditions to change very quickly, with anchors sometimes dragging in the shallow water. This presented a serious risk of vessels running aground.
An additional challenge was physical lights on channel markers occasionally failing.
Solution
Guardian:protect is used to create a Virtual Aid to Navigation (VAtoN) if a channel marker light fails or if a navigation aid drifts from its location or is removed for repair.
Guardian automatically detects if a ship is dragging outside their anchor area toward the shallow shoreline. Guardian sends a proactive alert to the vessel, the pilot and the Harbourmaster.
A perimeter line of port limits was established with exact vessel arrival time logged, creating a clear berthing priority.
Benefits
Enhance safety
Enhanced safety for personnel entering and leaving the port. VAtoNs serve as a redundancy for channel marker lights with immediate implementation.
Reduce cost of incidents
No groundings have occurred since implementing Guardian. Reduced costs of monitoring personnel and the risk of human error.
Reducing risk
Eliminated liability claims on the port for incorrect berthing priority as minimal cost.