One of the first decisions taken by Libra was to use the HTS OCR (Optical Character Recognition) solutions in all the gates of cargo access and trucks in the ports of Santos and Rio de Janeiro.
The decision was driven, among other factors, by the mandated Brazilian requirement to implement automated scanning of containers in Brazilian Ports. By December 2012, all port terminals in Brazil must be equipped to scan 100 percent of containers, using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for the automatic recognition and identification of containers and trucks, on arrival and on departure, without human intervention. Those terminals that fail to comply with these requirements will not be able to operate without penalty.
However, Port automation has become crucial in Brazil, and experts have said that even if the legislation had not been forced, the ports would have needed to introduce automation to remain competitive in the marketplace.
HTS Brazil, the national arm of HTS, an Israeli company which is the world leader in port automation, was the company chosen by Libra to provide the solution. HTS’s system automatically recognizes the license plate of the truck and the container number and then automatically transmits the information onwards to the terminal operating system.
“Over 10 alternatives were evaluated before deciding on HTS, and HTS was chosen for its effectiveness not only for the legal compliance to the new regulations but for its ability to provide efficiency gains for Libra”, stated Diogo Vasconcellos, Manger, IT of Libra Terminals Business Unit.
“We are very satisfied with the receptiveness that HTS has had in the Brazilian Market,” said Maxwell Rodrigues, vice-president of HTS Brazil. From a management viewpoint, the Brazilian terminals don’t want to simply be compliant with the legal demands to automate, they also seek to raise their competitive edge.