NAPA Brings Digital Logbooks Within Reach of More Ships

NAPA, the maritime software, services and data analysis provider announced that its industry-benchmark electronic logbook, NAPA Logbook, is now available as a monthly service solution.

According to media release, this reduced barrier to entry will bring the connectivity and job automation benefits of digital logbooks to more of the maritime market. NAPA Logbook will also be one of the first integrations with NAPA Mobile, enabling support for smartphone logbook entries wherever the crew are onboard.

As the world’s leading provider of electronic logbooks, NAPA Logbook has more than a decade’s service on board vessels serving more than 8,000 users and is approved by more than 20 major flag states, including the Bahamas, Marshall Islands, Panama, Malta and Singapore. An electronic logbook serves the same purpose as a traditional paper logbook but also brings major additional benefits to its users in terms of time savings, data validation and data sharing.

With NAPA Logbook crew workload is reduced, there’s less duplicated reporting and fewer errors through automated data collection. The tamper-proof NAPA Logbook also provides a rigorous backup system for all recorded data. This includes the data required to be logged under EU MRV and the Ballast Water Management Convention.

Jussi Siltanen, Product Manager, Safety Solutions at NAPA commented, "The maritime industry has spent much of the last few years speaking about autonomous ships while many ships still lack the basic automation that could reduce workload, increase reporting accuracy and deliver data in a legible, indexed and searchable form. This technology has been available for more than a decade, but the cost of entry has been a barrier for some ship owners and operators. This despite the fact that six- and seven-figure penalties for falsifying or failing to maintain an accurate oil record book have become all too common in recent years – just one reporting struggle that a digital logbook can solve.”

Jussi Siltanen added, “In Futurenautics Crew Connectivity Survey 2018 98% of seafarers said that onboard automation had had a positive impact on their role. By removing the initial capital expenditure requirement of NAPA Logbook and making it available as a service with monthly payment we hope to enable more owners and operators to support their crews through digitising bridge reports.”

NAPA Logbook offers a single solution for multiple logs and record books including deck log, engine log, oil record book, GMDSS, garbage record book and ballast log. It draws data from automated signals where interfaced, other NAPA systems like NAPA Loading Computer or Performance Optimisation, and other Logbook entries as well as manual entries. It also provides automated triggers and useful reminders to ensure no tasks are missed or entries left incomplete. NAPA Logbook will also be available on the new NAPA Mobile smartphone interface, meaning reporting can be completed anywhere around the ship.

NAPA is also investing heavily in new developments to enhance the system’s capabilities like machine vision technology. This technology will use Logbook on the NAPA Mobile app in combination with the smartphone camera to “read” analogue meters in the machine room and log the reading automatically. This is expected to save time and improve the user experience for crew, as well as improved accuracy by reducing typos and transposed numbers.

Siltanen continued, “One essential part of NAPA Logbook is NAPA Office, the system shore-side staff use to monitor, analyze and record ship data. The system also supports shore-side teams because the data is fully searchable and NAPA Office provides dashboards and analysis to optimize shipping operations.”

Thousands of officers on all ship types and experts ashore already rely on NAPA Logbook to seamlessly communicate with NAPA Office to easily record and search logbook events, filter results with keywords, make calculations based on automation signals, and check values against boundary conditions. It is also fully integrated with other NAPA solutions, including NAPA Voyage Report, NAPA Decision Support Cards, and NAPA Status Board, and complies with all current international maritime regulations and laws.