A Framework for Container Stowage Information Exchange Between Ships and Harbors Using RFID and Web Services

Abstract

Efficient stowage plan is required for handling large number of containers in a container terminal. Before a ship enters port, most of container terminals prepare a stowage plan based on information received from the shipping company. If this information does not have the accurate information of containers in the vessel, the stowage plan might be often changed or sometimes it becomes useless. In order to avoid this problem, we apply RFID system in the container ship and we propose a framework for communication between ships and terminals using RFID and Web Services technology.