Page 33: of Marine News Magazine (May 2025)

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Digitalization:

Coming to a

Waterway Near You or a while now, the large carriers have offered portals to custom- ers for booking and managing

F shipments; one look no further than

Ingram Barge’s Intellisoft, ACBL’s

ACBL Connect, and KEX’s Kirby- compass. The cloud-based TowWorks platform is used by many barge opera- tors for operations, maintenance, and for planning. Now, a new generation of online offerings, aimed at the op- erational side of barging, is emerging.

Consider Opentug.com, which has recently raised $2.2 million (from an investor group led by New York based

TMV, which has deep ties to interna- tional tanker shipping) to build out its

BargeOS digital software platform.

BargeOS is aimed at both the cargo side (for tracking shipments) and at the carriers (for fine-tuning tug/ barge operations). Another outfit worth watching is Spotbarge.com, serving operators and cargo customers in Eu- ropean waters, for now, but is in ex- pansion mode. Its software is used to track barges in the fuel trades between refineries and distribution facilities.

Besides aiming at the logistics side, its software is also used for constructing and evaluating price quotes on move- ments along the river system.