Bussiness News

Hamburg / Germany, 17 March 2010 - GL Maritime Software's "Port Clearance Assistant" is now available at no cost to ship owners and managers. The module of the ship management software simplifies port clearance procedures and ensures that the crew onboard has the right information available.

As the software module incorporates contributions and experience of its user community, "Port Clearance Assistant" will be available at free of charge in 2010.

Regulations differ considerably according to each country and even between ports. Preparing the necessary port documents such as customs, immigration, Port Health Authority and Port Authority can be a time consuming task, especially with ever changing requirements. GL Maritime Software's "Port Clearance Assistant" module prepares port documents automatically, which saves time and paperwork onboard. Based on a pre-defined route the necessary port documents are already assigned in the system and ready when entering the respective port. Much of the data, for example crew member details, is pre-loaded, which means the captain just has to review the details and the documents are ready for arrival at the next port. In some cases the documents can even be sent to the agent in the port before the actual arrival of the ship.

When an electronic notice of arrival and departure (e-NOA/D) is required - for example in the USA or Germany - advance notice of arrival can be sent to the governing port authority in the required format from the system.

Over 500 standard port clearance documents may be accessed at any time.

At the same time the crew can be sure that the library is kept up to date because all users of the system can inform GL Maritime Software of any new requirements they may encounter. The system then enables all other users to benefit from an immediate update.

"Port Clearance Assistant" is one module of the GL ShipManager ship management software. This comprehensive software suite supports planned

maintenance, purchasing, stock control, voyage management, port clearance, incident management, and quality and safety management.