Applied Weather Technology, Inc. (AWT (News - Alert)) has unveiled a new Automatic Identification System (AIS), which the company says will help fleet managers to more closely monitor their vessels.

AWT’s new service comes after a recent convention of International Maritime Organization (IMO) made AIS mandatory for all ships weighing more than 300 tons.

Basically, AIS is an automated tracking system used on ships for identifying and locating oncoming ships for avoiding collision. AWT has improvised the same technology for the close monitoring of ships.

"With AWT Global AIS, we combine global satellite coverage with terrestrial AIS data to provide fleet managers with maximum coverage," said Skip Vaccarello, president and CEO for AWT.

The AIS transponders automatically broadcast information including ship’s position, speed and the direction at which it is heading. Vessels can be monitored very closely when satellite data is combined with AIS, says AWT.

In addition, AIS lets fleet owners to know when the ship will arrive at port, whether the vessel is falling behind schedule or encountering bad weather.

"With AWT Global AIS data, our customers can now get a more complete picture of each voyage in a timely and cost-effective manner," says Richard Brown, vice president of product management at AWT. "Combining AIS data with other AWT services lets fleet managers see when a vessel is approaching high-risk areas such as pirate attack regions, as well as detect when a vessel stops before the captain has had a chance to report it."

The AIS supports AWT’s GlobalView service. GlobalView is a fleet management system that combines ship routing technology with Google (News - Alert) Earth, so fleet managers can expect to save fuel, time and money.

“When combined with GlobalView, not only does it give us positioning of the entire fleet on-screen, but you get the added bonus of overlaying the weather, clouds, visibility, waves, current speeds, etc., and this list goes on. It is an invaluable source of information in a neat little package," said Anthony Birch, Marine Assistant, Operations, Africa Express Lines.

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