From an announcement platform to an institute

This is how UAB-Online became indispensable for inland and maritime navigation

UAB-Online is now a household name in liquid bulk operations in the inland navigation and maritime world. How did the adventure begin? Which problems at terminals led to the setting up of the platform? CEO Hans Bobeldijk and CFO Bas Been talk about the beginnings of UAB-Online.

Problems with the announcement of arrival of a vessel

In 2008, a work group for charterers and terminals in the inland navigation sector was formed. They observed various problems to do with the announcement of arrival of vessels. Bas: “One terminal wanted vessels to notify their arrival at least eight hours in advance, another one, one hour before arrival. One wanted to be notified by marine radio, the other with a telephone call. Vessel crews were never sure of the procedures the terminals expected them to follow. The founders of UAB-Online spotted this problem and decided it was time to improve things.” They searched for a single system for the announcement of arrival of vessels at the terminals.

Uniformity was not the only problem arriving vessels faced. “The time for the announcement of arrival was also a problem”, says Hans. “As standard the terminal calls the vessel that announces itself first to the quay first. For this reason, the registered announcement time was very important. Terminals didn’t always write down notification times on paper correctly. This created problems, especially at shift handover. This led to a range of consequences.” Imagine being put at the back of the queue again, which leads to demurrage costs. This drove the UAB-Online founders to find a way to set announcement time fairly. This resulted in the UAB-Online pilot project in 2010.

Fair, efficient and quick announcement of arrival

The original system developers wanted to find a way to ensure a fair process for the announcement of arrival and the announcement time. Bas: “After quite a few brainstorming sessions with industry stakeholders and a lot of hard work, the announcement of arrival platform UAB-Online, which stands for Uniforme Aanmelding Binnenvaart Online, uniform announcement of arrival for inland shipping vessels, was born. This made sure that the announcement of arrival and the announcement time went from paper and individual email messages to a digital platform.”

It meant procedures for the announcement of arrival for multiple terminals were the same, but it also made the system fairer and faster. The announcement time is independently set in UAB-Online. This means that the demurrage amount and the right to other compensation is clear for both vessels and terminals.

Meeting in the cloud

In 2014, Bas, Hans and Marijn met through IntertransIS, Bas’ maritime cloud company. “This company provides information on vessel logistics in the ports of Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Hans and his business partner Marijn Woud developed applications at their software company. This is how we met. The software company owned by Hans and Marijn developed a connection to port companies for IntertransIS”, says Bas. 

Bas was experienced in the maritime industry and sparked Hans’ interest at the time. Hans: “Our tasks at the software company were a bit repetitive. I was not enjoying it as much anymore. The varied tasks we carried out for IntertransIS were a pleasant change. I found the world of shipping fascinating.”

Takeover of UAB-Online

In 2017 we had the opportunity of taking over UAB-Online. “I’d become passionate about the maritime industry, which meant I was ready to get more involved in that world. UAB-Online had large-scale clients. Bas and our business partner Marijn were as enthusiastic as I was, after which we took over UAB-Online partially in 2018 and fully in 2020, Hans explains.

Many opportunities

Both Bas and Hans had their own reasons to embark on this adventure. Bas: “I had already worked extensively in the maritime industry, but never before in inland navigation. I could see opportunities, but also an interesting challenge. Learning the ropes of inland shipping was beckoning.”

Hans also spotted many opportunities. “It was clear that the market needed to be improved. I was enthusiastic about platform standardization and digitization. Making sure all market improvements found their place in UAB-Online became my calling.”

Combining announcement and handling

After taking over the platform, Hans, Bas and Marijn set to work. “Our clients, the terminals, said they wanted the digitization of legal checklists. They were filling out carbonless forms, which was cumbersome. The same applied to the exchange of documents, which was done with separate email messages outside UAB-Online. We added the checklist to our platform and developed a document exchange module. UAB-Online was transformed from a announcement platform into a communication platform”, says Hans.

More user-friendly for boatmasters

We talked to the boatmasters too, not just the terminals. Bas: “The boatmasters do not pay to use UAB-Online but they are the users. They informed us that the forms they filled out were not optimized. When introducing a small error, they had to start filling it out again. We made sure they only had to enter information in the fields that included errors and that the system copied the other details automatically. That saves them time and it is more user-friendly.”

It also provided another pleasant result. “This type of improvement means boatmasters are happier to do the paperwork in UAB-Online. Their enthusiasm makes them our ambassadors, recommending our platform to other terminals. This means clients contact us.”

Expanding to maritime shipping

UAB-Online not only acquired new clients but under the leadership of Hans, Bas and Marijn they added maritime shipping options. “We needed the cooperation of ship’s agents to do so. They are a third party organizing everything for ocean-going vessels at a local port”, clarifies Hans. “The ship’s agents wanted to test UAB-Online when the new legislation came into force in 2020. The legislation made it mandatory for ships and terminals to exchange a wide range of documents. Ship’s agents were afraid of the loss of time on administration and forwarding email messages.”

Ship’s agents became enthusiastic

After a pilot project the ship’s agents were so positive about UAB-Online that they all wanted to keep using the platform. Hans: “They like the standard working method for all that needs to be done at the same time. They also save a lot of time.” Once again their enthusiasm turned them into platform ambassadors. “They were not used to working on a platform, but they now ask terminals to work on UAB-Online. That is a wonderful development.”

UAB-Online has become an institution

The above steps and developments have ensured that UAB-Online is solidly anchored to liquid bulk operations in both the inland and ocean-going shipping world. “They consider us an important party in their business”, says Bas. “A Trade & Logistics professor at Erasmus University in Rotterdam recommended our platform in his report for the logistics top sector. We are also invited to present at great companies such as Covestro; invited to discuss issues at work groups by large companies, and referred to as the industry standard by the clients of our clients. We have become an institution within the sector.”

Optimizing and improving sustainability

We still have more than enough ambitions to address in future. Bas: “We want to further optimize and improve the sustainability of the industry. UAB-Online has reduced ship waiting times at terminals by between 60-90 minutes. This has significantly curtailed emissions. We want to improve the sustainability of such logistics processes.” In fact, the platform is never complete. “New information becomes available, new legislation comes into force and developments happen all the time. This makes UAB-Online a living product that improves continuously and adapts to the market”, adds Hans.