B.J.L. Kuijpers
RoRo-Database Report. A Description of the database
Computer program,
Report 99.3.LT.5280, Transport Technology, Logistic Engineering.
This report describes the database I build during my stay at Chalmers
University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. This database was built
for DFDS Torline. DFDS Torline is a RoRo-shipping company operating in the North
Sea and Baltic Sea area. The scope of the database is all the freight
traffic between Norway, Sweden and Finland on one hand and Great Britain
and the east and western European mainland on the other.
This report describes the working in general of the database. Furthermore
the structure of the database is given and all the output of the various
queries and reports. Finally a usermanual is given to instruct the user
how to use the database in a quick and easy way.
As stated earlier the scope is freight traffic. This means that for
RoRo-shipping the capacity is expressed in lane meters. A lane meter can be
defined as a unit of deck space, 1 meter in length and the width needed for a
trailer (ca 2.8 meter). More definitions can be found in literature but this
is the one commonly used. The database contains the available capacity
expressed in lane meters in the area of scope. The database is based on
weekly schedules, which means that only operators sailing on weekly
schedules are taken into the database. There are not that many operators
in short sea shipping working with two week or more week schedules.
Therefore no real error is made by neglecting those operators. All
other operators are taken into the database. Information can be found
concerning the ports, the operators, the ships and off course the time
table. Through out the database hyperlinks can be found to the WWW.
A database consists of tables. A tables on his part consists of fields. The
field is the part of the table that can actually contain the data, called
value. A table is linked to the other tables through it's keys. A key is a field
in the table which is related to an other field in a different table, also
called key. The primary key of a table is a unique field(s) that is supposed to
have a unique value. Non-primary keys are called foreign keys.
The Roro-Database consist of 6 tables, of which the table 'tblTimetable'
is the core. This table is linked to all the other tables in the database
with its keys. This is shown if the following figure.
Within the database a user-friendly userinterface is built that already
contains lots of queries and reports. Output of the queries and reports can be
found in the report. The user can off course create more queries and reports.
Most of the data in the database was collected from the internet or via
direct contact with the companies offering services.
With this database a good piece of marketing equipment is created, since
all the available capacity in the area can be found. Furthermore
utilisation calculations can be performed using the calculation screen
within the database and information about actually used capacity (Shippax
for instance).
Reports on Logistic Engineering (in Dutch)
Modified: 2000.02.20;
logistics@3mE.tudelft.nl
, TU Delft
/ 3mE
/ TT
/ LT.