Portcalls & ARL release online schedule inquiry portal

PortCalls Philippines and arl-shipping.com Limited have released an online schedule inquiry facility embedded into the PortCalls web-site, portcalls.com, allowing the Philippine transport community to perform self-service schedule inquiries on international sailings to and from two key Philippine ports, Manila and Cebu.

PortCalls and arl-shipping.com have announced the release of the arl-shipping.com powered schedule inquiry facility on PortCalls’ web-site, portcalls.com.

The free online schedule inquiry allows the transport community, including shippers and forwarders, to get an overview of suitable departures and arrivals in the context of the Philippine market. The portal will later be expanded to provide online and instant freight quotes and bookings from liner agents interested in providing the service to their customers. Additionally the scope of the transport providers will be increased to include NVOCCs, forwarders and consolidators offering domestic feeder service points connections, inland LCL warehouse delivery as well as door-to-door pick-up and delivery services, supplementing the port-port services of liner agents.

PortCalls publisher Liza Almonte said the new service complements information offered by the twice-a-week PortCalls newspaper and other online services on the PortCalls website. “We are proud to provide the first self-service offering of its kind in Philippines. The service will free shippers, consignees and staff in the transport industry from trivial business transactions like schedule inquiries, freight quote requests and bookings so they can better invest their time adding value to their customer’s supply chain services,” she adds.

arl-shipping.com’s René Bendt says more e-Portals will be launched in the near future with shipping communities, shipping gazettes and transportation associations, allowing each of these channels to complement other services to their respective focus groups.

ARL’s e-Portal is a web application with strong security, authentication, and encrypted data exchange requiring internet connection and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher. On ARL’s site for shipping solutions, arl-shipping.com, interested transport providers can request an on-line presentation and sign-up for using platform. For additional information on the ARL e-Portal Platform, contact Evgeny Drokov or visit arl-shipping.com.