Asking ChatGPT: “How can AI help the ferry industry?”

By | 2023 Newsletter week 21 | No Comments

AI can offer several benefits to the ferry industry by enhancing efficiency, safety, and customer experience. Here are some ways AI can help the ferry industry:

  1. Intelligent Fleet Management: AI can optimize ferry operations by analyzing data on weather conditions, passenger demand, traffic patterns, and other factors. It can help schedule ferries more efficiently, reducing waiting times and improving overall fleet management.
  2. Predictive Maintenance: AI algorithms can monitor various components of ferries in real-time, analyzing sensor data to predict maintenance requirements. By detecting potential issues in advance, ferry operators can perform proactive maintenance, minimizing downtime and reducing costs.
  3. Enhanced Safety Measures: AI can contribute to improving safety in the ferry industry. Computer vision technologies can be employed to monitor passenger behavior, identify potential security threats, and detect abnormal activities. AI can also aid in monitoring weather conditions and predicting potential hazards to ensure safe operations.
  4. Intelligent Customer Service: AI-powered chatbots or virtual assistants can provide instant assistance to passengers, addressing their queries about schedules, ticketing, facilities, and more. Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms enable chatbots to understand and respond to passenger inquiries, improving customer experience and reducing the workload on customer service personnel.
  5. Automated Ticketing and Boarding: AI can streamline the ticketing and boarding processes by automating ticket validation, facial recognition-based identification, and automated passenger counting. This reduces queues and simplifies the passenger experience, leading to faster and more efficient boarding procedures.
  6. Route Optimization: AI algorithms can analyze historical data and real-time information to optimize ferry routes. By considering factors like passenger demand, traffic conditions, and fuel consumption, AI can suggest the most efficient routes, reducing travel time, and optimizing fuel usage.
  7. Environmental Impact Reduction: AI can aid in reducing the environmental impact of ferry operations. By optimizing routes, fuel consumption can be minimized, leading to lower carbon emissions. AI algorithms can also analyze data on energy usage to identify areas where energy efficiency can be improved.

Overall, AI can help the ferry industry by optimizing operations, improving safety, enhancing customer experience, and reducing costs. By leveraging AI technologies, ferry operators can achieve increased efficiency, sustainability, and profitability.

Scandlines’ new zero direct emission freight ferry under the Danish flag with dual crew

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  • At the Cemre shipyard in Turkey, all the steel plates for Scandlines’ new zero direct emission freight ferry PR24 (Puttgarden-Rødby 2024) have now been cut.
  • All 36 sections are expected to be welded together and placed on the slipway by the end of June 2023.
  • The ferry will enter service on the Fehmarn Belt in 2024 under the Danish flag and with dual crew.
  • When the PR24 enters service on the Fehmarn Belt in just over a year’s time, it will sail under the Danish flag and with dual crew, which is the optimum operational solution for Scandlines.
  • Preparations are also ongoing in Scandlines’ simulator in Puttgarden. A digital twin of the PR24 will be installed in the first quarter of 2024, so that the crew will have enough time to practice navigation of the PR24 before it goes into service.
  • The ferry terminals in Puttgarden and Rødby must also be prepared for the use of the PR24 and the increased traffic volume, especially within freight. Scandlines has therefore carried out a comprehensive traffic study in cooperation with the construction consultancy Sweco, which forms the basis for the new terminal infrastructure. The new infrastructure will increase the capacity of the terminal areas and enable the automation of check-in as well as the use of the new freight ferry PR24.

Source: Scandlines press room

Ferry talk in the media

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Soon the shipping companies will also have to pay for their carbon dioxide emissions. Viking Line lacks alternatives to fossil fuels and describes emissions trading as a direct tax in the short term. It is expected to cost the shipping company around 25 million euros per year.

Source: https://svenska.yle.fi


In Norway, the Eide Knudsen family in Bergen will become a new co-owner of the ferry company Fjord Line, writes Finansavisen. The brothers Tom and Iwan Eide Knudsen become owners of Fjord Line together with Frode Teigen and Johan H. Andresen.