If you do not use EDI, this information will be received in a paper format. You will need to enter manually the data into your Information System. Every quarter, you will process the data and print the data sets according to the European Council Directive on maritime statistics. You will send this paper to Eurostat.

Wouldn’t it be easier NOT to to need any manual entry? and NOT to print the data? what if you could get all this information, process it, and send it automatically?

This is possible through the use of EDIFACT messages such as GESMES, CUSCAR and IFCSUM.

If the port authorities and/or the transport operators and/or the Port Community System send you CUSCAR or IFCSUM messages, the EDIMARS project has defined ways of extracting the statistical data directly from such operational messages, and generate a GESMES message required for statistics.

Note that EDIMARS also showed that in some cases the information may be extracted directly from information systems databases, even if you do not use EDIFACT messages.

This is not an attempt of harmonisation of the manifest.

You are in this case playing a role similar as a Port Authority or a Port Community System (see DEMO of Port Authority or Collecting Agency).

An easier solution for you (but a little heavier for the others although cheaper and without confidentiality problems) would be to ask them to send GESMES messages. Imagine that you receive monthly messages that have all the same format and use all the same codes, wouldn’t that be convenient? It would be easy then to process this automatically with an EDIFACT translator, and then consolidate and aggregate the data. Transmission to Eurostat every quarter would be automatic as Eurostat understands GESMES (in fact, they have contributed to its design!).

If you want to see how a GESMES message looks like (although you don’t need to see one for the system to work!) :