For the superintendent: which ship needs attention

The main question is not where the ships are. It is which ship will soon lose the right to trade. A Safety Management Certificate with a missed annual endorsement is as invalid as an expired one. Both are usually found by a port state inspector, at a berth, while the laycan (the loading dates) is running.

So the fleet screen opens on the alerts, not on a map. First expired certificates, then ones expiring within ninety days, then endorsements due within sixty days, then surveys due within a hundred and eighty days, then any detention in the last twelve months. Each alert shows the ship, the document and the date, and links to the folder where you fix it.

For the chartering manager: which ship is free next

The other question is which ship will be free soon, and where. Each ship on the fleet screen shows its last known position, its open position if your desk has entered one, and its current fixture (deal) if it has one. You read the answer from one row, not from three systems.

A trading ship with no open position and no fixture is marked in the colour that means "please check", not the colour that means "something is wrong". A free ship can go to the marketplace in one click, with your name or without it. Enquiries from other desks arrive with a name and an e-mail address you can answer from your own mailbox.

What the fleet screen holds

Verified owners and managers only

Desk and above

The fleet screen is not open to everyone with a plan. Before you add your first ship, a person at Neptune Labs Inc. checks a document that shows your company runs ships: a certificate of registry, the ISM Document of Compliance, a management agreement or your company registration papers. This usually takes one working day. A ship the register already links to your company is accepted at once. Any other ship needs its own certificate. A broker offering someone else's ship can still post to the marketplace, without the verified-owner mark.

Your ships, added from the register

Desk and above

Pick each ship from 101,900 in the register by name or IMO number (the ship's permanent ID). Say if it is owned, managed, operated or chartered in (hired from another owner), and give it the name your desk uses. Ship details, ownership and survey dates come with it. Your own corrections are private and no other desk can see them.

The certificate folder

Desk and above

Statutory, class and commercial certificates for each ship: SMC, DOC, ISSC, MLC, class, load line, the SOLAS safety certificates, IOPP, IAPP, ISPP, ballast water, CLC, P&I and hull and machinery entry, and anything else you add. Each has an issue date, an expiry date and an endorsement due date. The status is worked out from the dates each time you open the folder, so it is always current.

The calendar, from two sources

Desk and above

Drydock and special survey dates from our data vendor, labelled "From our records", next to the drydock, vetting, crew change and maintenance you have booked, labelled "Your own". They are shown together but never merged, so an old vendor date cannot replace a booking your superintendent made last week.

Port state inspections and casualties

Desk and above

Every inspection on file for the ship, with the authority, the port, the number of deficiencies and whether the ship was detained, plus any casualty record. This comes from the same register the brokers on this platform use. A detention in the last twelve months shows as an alert, because a charterer's vetting team will find it first.

Last position, open position, current fixture

Desk and above

The last AIS position (ship tracking) on file for each ship, with the destination and ETA the crew reported, shown on the fleet map. Refreshing a position buys a live position from the data vendor, and the software tells you before it spends anything. Next to it are the open position your desk entered and the ship's current fixture.

Open tonnage on the marketplace

Desk and above

Offer a ship to every desk on the platform from the ship's own page, as described in offering open tonnage. The listing shows the ship details you chose to publish and the open port and dates, nothing from your notes. You can withdraw it or mark it fixed as soon as the ship is hired.

How many ships, and what it costs

The fleet screen is on every paid plan, and the plans differ by size. Desk holds up to ten ships, Chartering up to thirty, and Fleet has no limit. An owner of eight ships uses Desk. A manager of forty uses Fleet. The screens are the same. Prices are on the pricing page, per licence, and the second person on the desk costs less than the first.

The marketplace is on every plan, including the free one, so you can offer a ship before you choose a plan.

What this is not

It is not a planned maintenance system. There is no spares inventory, no running hours, no work orders and no crew list. It is not an accounting system and it does not hold your noon reports. Owners who need those use other software next to this one. This product covers the commercial and compliance side: the fleet, its certificates, its inspection record, and finding cargo for its free days.

Charterers and cargo owners have their own page, and the board both sides post to is described at the marketplace, across 11,425 ports.