I ports they have two ways to increase the volumes of goods handled: expand their infrastructures or make better use of the spaces already available. The second option certainly presents fewer difficulties and this is precisely the reason for its success. Technologies such as the 5G, l’Internet of Things, l’artificial intelligence and the blockchain I am able to make the logistic operations extremely more efficient. Today the real battle between the airports is therefore the technological one.
“To become more efficient and manage greater volumes of goods, however, it is not enough to adopt these technologies which must instead be fully integrated and connected along the entire logistics chain – he warns Alberto Guidi, expert ofInstitute for International Political Studies (Ispi), who dedicated an in-depth study to this topic -. Each port is characterized by a complex system of movements of people, goods and means of transport, which produce and require one large amount of data“. In such a context, the 5G connection, used in conjunction with the Internet of Things (IoT), makes it possible to connect trucks, ships, cranes and even the same containers in the same network. The big data analysis techniques thus obtained then allow them to be used in models which, by tracing the movements and state of the object, can elaborate the best combinations of routes and stowage of goods, and significantly reduce the error rate during freight inspections.
According to the estimates of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), these technologies are able to guarantee a savings of about $ 300 for each delivery only as regards customs clearance costs. “Daily operations will consequently be increasingly automated, efficient and sustainable, also by means of the blockchain which offers a way to connect and share the different systems used to register and track goods in a secure and transparent way – underlines Guidi -. They can like that to be unnecessary intermediaries are excluded and management costs are reduced of the documents, which represent approximately 50% of the cost of transport “.
It is no coincidence that the Singapore port is the busiest in the world in terms of naval tonnage, by virtue of more than 130,000 ship calls per year. The Asian airport has in fact adopted a ship traffic management system state-of-the-art, which uses intelligent algorithms to predict high-traffic areas, and allows for an autonomous and uninterrupted exchange of information between ships, even if unmanned on board.
In Europe supremacy goes to port of Rotterdam which, thanks to technology, has adopted a system called “digital twin“(Lit.” digital twin “). That is, it has an exact virtual copy of the port including real-time data on all the port infrastructures, ship and rail transport movements, weather conditions and sea currents. This system allows you to keep an eye on the technical conditions of the assets, to conduct digital inspections and by 2030 it will be able to automatically guide ships to moorings even without crew, reducing waiting times.
L’Italy instead it does not shine on the front of the adoption of hi-tech solutions in ports. For goods checks, 177 administrative procedures are required for 17 different public administrations which result in one loss of 20 thousand hours of work per year. This logistical inefficiency entails, second Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, 11% extra costs for Italian logistics companies compared to the European average, e losses of 70 billion euros a year for the Italian banks, of which 30 attributable to bureaucratic charges and digital delays.
“There is therefore an enormous potential in the technological application to Italian port logistics, still largely unexpressed due to the difficulty in developing long-term strategic coordination – concludes the ISPI expert -. The Strategic plan of ports and logistics presented to the Chambers in 2015 has so far failed to implement a National Port Community System, integrated into the National Logistics Platform. Some positive signs, however, can be identified in the recent agreement between the Customs Agency and Assoporti for the digitization of customs procedures relating to the entry and exit of goods in national port areas, and in the latest available version of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “.