The Port View
The same engine, asked the other way round. Instead of "where is this vessel going", the Port View answers "who is coming to my port, and what will they need when they get here".
The flip
A bunker supplier at a single port does not want a database of thousands of vessels. They want one sentence: "Over the next five days, eight vessels are heading here; three will likely need fuel; here is who to call."
VPM already predicts, for every tracked vessel, which port it calls at next. Turn that around and group it by destination, and you get a live arrivals list for any port — each vessel with its timing, its likely need, and a contact. That list is the product a local supplier buys.
What a row tells you
Pick a port. Each vessel heading toward it shows as one row:
| Field | What it says |
|---|---|
| Vessel | Name, type, size, and the port it is coming from. |
| Arrival window | When it is expected in, and when it is expected to leave — one span, not two numbers to add up. |
| Load state | Laden or in ballast, inferred from draught. |
| Likely need | Fuel grade and the quantity needed to reach the next port; cost and CO₂ for the leg. |
| Confidence | How strong the prediction is, shown as a coloured edge on the row so the reliable ones read at a glance. |
| Next port after this | Where the vessel is likely to go after calling — the second hop, for looking past the immediate arrival. |
A row also carries a contact for the operator, so the list is directly actionable.
The arrival window
The number a supplier acts on is not "when does it arrive" alone — it is "when is it here and still alongside". The Port View shows arrival and departure as a single window.
- Arrival is the ETA along the real sea route, adjusted for whether the vessel is laden or in ballast.
- Departure is that arrival plus the expected time alongside — taken from the vessel's own history where there is enough of it, laden and ballast stays counted separately, and from the port's historical average otherwise.
Laden or ballast
Draught tells you whether a ship is carrying cargo. That single signal drives more than it first appears:
- A laden vessel sails slightly slower and tends to stay longer in port — both feed the arrival window.
- A vessel arriving in ballast has spare capacity, which is the seed of a different question entirely — see the empty-leg market.
- Load state shifts the fuel estimate for the onward leg.
Declared vs predicted
Every arrival is tagged with where it came from:
- Declared — the vessel is broadcasting this destination over AIS, and it resolved to a real port. Higher confidence.
- Predicted — no usable declaration; this is the movement model's call. Lower confidence, and marked as such.
The tag is not decoration. A declared arrival five days out is close to certain; a predicted one is a lead, not a booking. The Port View never blurs the two.
The map
Above the list is a chart of the region with every active port marked — around 460 of them, not a handful of hand-picked points. A port turns green when a vessel is inbound and stays blue when nothing is heading its way, so the traffic is visible at a glance. Hover for a summary; click to load that port's arrivals.
The port's own pattern
Alongside the live list, each port carries a profile built from the whole tracked fleet's history there: the monthly rhythm of calls, the average time alongside, the laden-versus-ballast split, and the ports vessels most often come from and head to next. It is the context a local agent already carries in their head, written down.
What it covers, and what comes next
The Port View runs today on VPM's tracked fleet — the concept, proven, on live data and no extra data cost. Its reach grows in three stages:
| Stage | What it adds | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Tracked fleet, reversed | Arrivals for any port, from vessels VPM already follows. | Live |
| Live regional traffic | Vessels currently underway toward the port, from area-wide AIS. | Next |
| Full regional prediction | The movement model applied to every vessel in the region, not just the tracked fleet. | Needs wider data |
Each port is its own market. A supplier at Muuga pays for the Muuga view; a supplier at Gdańsk pays for Gdańsk. The same tool, sold once per port.