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Since the beginning of 2019, the Port Authority calculates and invoices port dues for seagoing vessels using FIQAS’ PortAbillity® software.
The Port of Rotterdam stands as Europe’s largest seaport, owing its premier status to its excellent sea accessibility, intermodal connections, and the 185,000 individuals employed within the harbor and industrial area. Annually, the port hosts over 30,000 seagoing vessels and 120,000 inland vessels, facilitating the handling of hundreds of millions of tons of goods. A pivotal cog in the Dutch economy, the Port of Rotterdam plays a crucial role, managed by the Port Authority Rotterdam. Their core responsibilities include sustainable development, management, and operation of the port while ensuring the smooth and safe handling of shipping. With an approximate turnover of €710 million, the Port Authority employs around 1,200 individuals.
Port dues, the expenses associated with ship visits, represent the principal source of income for the Port Authority. This encompasses all reconcilable costs based on a ship’s visit, including port dues, quay, buoy, and piling charges, waste contribution, and inland port dues. The port dues process is a complex business procedure critical to cash flow, thereby demanding high reliability and efficiency from the underlying software. The Port Authority aims for an efficient and reliable process with a customer-centric focus.
Since Q1 2019, the Port Authority has been using FIQAS’ PortAbillity® software to calculate and invoice port dues for seagoing vessels. The solution comprises a web-based reporting portal as the front-end, communicating with the invoice engine and other modules of the off-the-shelf billing platform Abillity® through services. Seamlessly integrated into the Port Authority’s system landscape, PortAbillity® plays a central role in the port dues process. This solution supports the process from data collection, supplementation, validation, calculation, to billing, presentation, and reporting.
The PortAbillity® port dues solution for the Port Authority is the outcome of an ambitious project carried out in an Agile approach. The primary objectives were transitioning to customer-friendly, expedited invoicing and the need for future adaptability to market changes. The port dues project for the Port of Rotterdam demonstrates how FIQAS’ generic software can be applied in a specific industry context, illustrating its relevance as a billing expert across various verticals, including logistics in this case.
