Fintraffic Vessel Traffic Services is proactively developing new digital service packages. One of these is the upcoming NEMO maritime traffic notification service – data from NEMO will be utilised in a variety of processes, such as monitoring the border crossings of persons, maritime search and rescue, overseeing the transport of hazardous substances, collecting fairway dues, port operation, safety and security surveillance, planning port state control and monitoring infectious diseases. Thanks to the new system, notification data on port visits by merchant ships will be smoothly sent to many different recipients on a centralised basis through a single system.
NEMO is part of efforts to meet the regulatory obligation of EU member states to standardise the process of submitting port visit notifications. Traficom is responsible for the implementation of this EU Regulation in Finland. System design, building and support have been outsourced to Fintraffic Vessel Traffic Services so that NEMO can be forged into a broader service that goes beyond the official requirements.
Digital solutions are firmly making their way into maritime transport
By harnessing Fintraffic’s existing internal services and processes, such as emergency response, and providing brand-new innovative services for maritime traffic and logistics, we can cost-effectively implement a maritime traffic notification solution that provides better and more well-rounded service to its users. Data and new digital solutions play a key role in this.
“Digitalisation and various degrees of automation are firmly making their way into maritime transport, too. Our aim is that in the future, data will flow even more efficiently and in real time between ships, ports, our vessel traffic centres and different port operators. Thanks to this, maritime traffic in Finland will be even safer, smoother and more efficient – and that is the foundation of all our work. It’s wonderful that we can now implement our strategic digitalisation objectives on a practical level in NEMO as well,” says Rami Metsäpelto, CEO of Fintraffic VTS.
“NEMO highlights how the standardisation, digitalisation and automation of data under the umbrella of a single notification system can help stakeholders to enhance the efficiency of their operations and achieve savings in terms of both costs and emissions. The aim is to create an unbroken chain of operations for ships, whether they are at sea or in port, arriving or departing. Our starting point is to consider how we can automate matters for the different actors involved in port visits in order to facilitate their day-to-day operations. This will enable us to create an extensive product family around this service in the future to benefit the entire sector,” says Olli Soininen, Programme Manager at Fintraffic VTS.
Work is progressing to practical implementation – the system will be deployed in summer 2025
Those working on NEMO are rolling up their sleeves – Fintraffic has kicked off development cooperation with Siili Solutions as its service partner. Under the new agreement, Fintraffic will start building the new NEMO maritime traffic notification service. Once fully launched in 2025, it will replace the current Portnet notification system.
“The more seamlessly NEMO serves Finnish port operators, the better it will work as a functional and integral part of daily operations at port. The NEMO maritime traffic notification service will be a national ‘single window’ for submitting maritime traffic notifications in Finland. In the future, the service will thus have a very significant impact on streamlining and facilitating vessel notification practices – and thereby also on port logistics communications and maintaining a shared situational picture,” says Soininen.
