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Carbon War Room, exactEarth, and University Maritime Advisory Service (UMAS) have launched BetterFleet, a free-to-access ship operational efficiency portal, on ShippingEfficiency.org.

Based on similar data and methods used by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to assess the world fleet, BetterFleet shows how efficiently an individual vessel has operated over the past year and compares it against its peers, Carbon War Room said.

The BetterFleet portal provides free-to-access efficiency data to support the shipping industry’s different stakeholders, and particularly those who use it as part of their supply chain, to understand the comparative energy efficiency of different vessels and identify actions to reduce emissions and costs.

The portal will allow any registered user to search by ship name or IMO number to see the performance of that vessel over a 12-month period.

“BetterFleet illustrates where and how much efficiency varies for ships, in order to identify potential sources of inefficiencies, find opportunities to optimise operations, and reduce costs for everyone. It will also empower owners to begin conversations with their charterers and shippers about how operations affect the bottom line, carbon emissions, and the environment,” Galen Hon, shipping operation manager with Carbon War Room, said.

BetterFleet is based on AIS data and the best publicly available data processed through models similar to those used for the Third IMO GHG Study. The portal currently includes a large portion of the tanker, bulk carrier and container ship fleets, and more vessel types and sizes will be added over time, Carbon War Room said.

Captain Kavil Madhu Nair, vice president, Rickmers Shipmangement (Singapore) Pte Ltd, who trialled BetterFleet prior to launch, said: “By launching BetterFleet and making operational efficiency data available to the masses, shipowners and managers will be able to make the case for greater operational efficiency to charterers and shippers, who drive the demand and determine how vessels are run in most cases. It will also boost the commercial offering of efficient operators and managers by demonstrating they are able to work with their shippers to run ships as efficiently as possible. We see real potential for BetterFleet to help owners, managers and shippers to re-shape the market.”