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Ships, airplanes and the cargos they carry arrive at the Port of Seattle's marine and airport terminals on a continual basis. This is no secret nor revelation. But what if you're one of the following: a shipper looking for your marine cargo's position in the transportation time-line, an airline passenger wanting to check traffic, parking and gate status at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, or a recreational boater looking to secure a moorage slip at the port's largest marina?
By what means and methods, in all three instances, would one normally track this information?
For the shipper, there are third-party systems, or the utilization of some of the ocean carriers' and marine terminal operators' websites. Various pieces of information can be gleaned from these sources, like cargo tracking, although recent industry surveys have revealed several shippers have yet to sign on to any of these opportunities. For airline passengers - traffic, parking, and even airport shuttle reservations are pieces of information all picked up separately (although information pertaining to parking conditions at the airport might not be currently available at all). For the recreational boater, there's a lot of phone calling to be done and forms to be filled out, mailed or faxed.
The Port of Seattle is planning to allow parties like these to check and interact with all of this respective information, among a host of other offerings, online - at a port-maintained website.
In early November, the first $710,000 phase of a five-year, $20 million "e-business" plan was approved by the Port of Seattle Commission. The remaining two phases, which represent the bulk of investment, will be part of the port's capital budget (pending approval), according to Mic Dinsmore, the Port of Seattle's executive director.
"We plan on putting in place a large platform with unlimited capacity," Dinsmore told Marine Digest.
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